Batman: Arkham City: Combat Mechanics Guide

﻿ Batman: Arkham City Combat Mechanics
This guide is meant to help you master the combat in Batman: Arkham City,
most particularly to get the following achievements: 50x Combo, Flawless
Freeflow Fighter 2.0, Gadget Attack, and Perfect Freeflow 2.0.
A significant amount of the information found in this guide will closely mirror
information found in my previous Arkham Asylum guide. That's because a decent
amount of the combat system was actually recycled from the previous game, with
mostly new additions. There are, however, a few significant changes, and I'll
try to draw attention to those.
It's also worth noting that although I played Arkham Asylum on Xbox 360, I am
playing Arkham City on PS3, and therefore all of the controls I'm referencing
will be for the PS3 this round.
Each section of this guide is tagged with a shortcut you can use to jump to it
using your browser's find feature. Make certain to include the enclosing
brackets when searching. I will sometimes reference shortcuts to other
sections, but I will never do so with the brackets. This will make certain you
can always jump straight to it.
Table of Contents:
Section A. - [XA]
Combat Mechanics
Combos - [CB1]
Fail-Outs - [FL1]
Moveset - [MS1]
Combat Gadgets - [CG1]
Unlockable Moves - [UM1]
Scoring - [SC1]
Putting it all together - [PT1]
Environment - [EV1]
Enemies - [EN1]
Section B. - [XB]
Challenge Mode Combat Challenges - [CC1]
Campaign Mode - [CM1]
Predator Medals - [PM1]
Section C. - [XC]
Achievements
Special Thanks, Contact Info, and Disclaimer - [END1]
[XA]. Section A: Combat Mechanics
---[CB1] - Combos---
First, let's have a discussion on what elements comprise a combo in B:AC.
Though there are several methods of affecting enemies in the game, as in the
previous game, only twelve count as what the game refers to as "variations".
These are Strike, Counter, Evade, Ultra Stun, Beat Down, Aerial Assault,
Ground Takedown, Instant Takedown, Multi-Takedown, Disarm and Destroy, Bat
Swarm, and Gadget. Bonuses are given for high variation scores.
This game also adds an additional concept of Gadget variations. Note that I
mentioned "Gadgets" as a variation in the previous set. That is because using
*a* gadget during a combo counts as a variation. However, using a second
gadget does *not* count as an additional variation. So the entire class of
"gadgets" is one "variation". For the Gadget Variation score, however, there
are five gadgets. Batarang, Batclaw, Explosive Gel, REC, and Freeze Blast. An
important note is that to receive a full Gadget Variation bonus, they do *not*
have to be performed within the same combo. The Gadget Variation meter does not
reset when a combo ends, so using a given gadget at any point during a fight
will permanently check it off of the Gadget Variation list. I will get more
into how this effects scoring and experience bonuses later.
Another import concept is that of Critical Strikes. While not distinct from
Strikes, they still have important applications. We'll discuss each of these in
depth in a moment, but first a few words about the combo system itself.
A combo begins when Batman performs certain of the combo element moves against
his enemies. Most commonly this is a Strike or a Counter. The combo meter is
signified by a hit counter in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. The
counter will continue to run and be incremented until Batman reaches one of the
fail-out conditions.
---[FL1] - Fail-Outs---
1. Timed-out Fail: If Batman fails to perform any action for 1 second, the
combo meter will fade. Notice that I said 1 second. This is actually a
tremendously generous timeout window, which may be difficult to notice since
fail-out #2 makes it seem like combos fade more quickly than they actually do.
Take note of this fact, however: the timeout is very generous. If you perform a
move, and you're not immediately sure what to do next (this is often the case
if you think an enemy is about to attack you, but it hasn't begun the attack
yet), you may give yourself a half-second of pause to gather your wits. Slowing
down the pace of the battle to a level you find comfortable is often the key to
victory.
2. Failed-Move: Arguably the most commonly encountered fail-out, certainly the
most common if you're still sloppy with the combat system. Whenever Batman
attempts a move that completely fails, he will automatically lose his combo.
I'll discuss each of these in depth in the various move sections.
3. Taking a hit: A fairly obvious one, if Batman is hit he loses his combo.
In Arkham City they seem to be a little more generous about gunfire, as I've
been knicked a time or two and not lost my combo. I'm not sure exactly where
the cutoff is here. It was machinegun fire, and I also did not seem to take
damage, so I believe that the new rule is that you will fail-out if your HP
is actually reduced by any means. Any minor changes aside, this
failure is still a simple concept: don't get hit.
---[MS1] - Moveset---
Here is a detailed discussion of each type of move in the game.
---
1. Strikes
- How to perform: Square []
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: Yes
Gained by starting the game, this is the most basic move in the game. Batman
punches an enemy. Or kicks. Or... actually, he does a lot of things.
When Batman begins a combo he has different phases. The first two hits of the
combo are a simple punch, and must be performed at close range. Once you have a
2-hit combo, Batman enters what is called "Freeflow". In the previous guide I
referred to this as "Power Strike Mode", but Arkham City has dialog that
confirms its official name. Upon entering Freeflow, with each strike Batman
will leap across the screen and find the nearest enemy that he is facing and
punch them. In the previous game the range of this move seemed nearly
unlimited, but that is not the case in Arkham City. I am uncertain if the
range was actually reduced, or if it's simply because there are bigger areas
to play with out on the world map, but I have managed to get Batman to have an
enemy out-of-range several times during streetfights. This will result in a
combo fail-out.
After the Critical Strikes upgrade has been purchased, Batman has a further
type of attack. After building up to a 3-hit combo (it doesn't matter how the
combo is achieved, it does not need to include 3 strikes, or any for that
matter), he can begin to use Critical Strikes. To execute a Critical, all you
have to do is only tap the X button only once since your last move. This
means do not button-mash. It's a hard habit to get out of, but ridiculously
rewarding. Critical Strikes do absurd damage, reducing enemies to ribbons in
seconds. In addition, each hit will always knock an enemy to the ground with a
brief stun period. Most importantly, a Critical Strike counts as 2 hits in all
measurable ways. This will come up later as being very important.
Notice that this means the most direct route to Critical Strikes is Strike,
Strike, Freeflow Strike, Critical Strike. That third hit Batman performs must
always be a Freeflow Strike, it cannot be a critical. This is because when you
perfectly time a Strike, you are not actually making that attack a Critical,
but rather the one that follows it. What this means is that if you want your
4th hit to be a Critical, you have to properly time the third hit. Meaning you
can only use the "mash X" strategy for Batman's first two punches. You must
them perfectly "time" all Freeflow Strikes, to make the blows that come after
them be Criticals.
There's actually an even further interesting caveat here. Due to hits from
things like Counters, or Gadgets, it's possible to get Batman into Freeflow by
a method other than Strikes. For these situations, your Critical Strike queue
is actually tracked from the first Strike you ever make.
For example, Batman's first punch is a regular Strike, not a Freeflow Strike.
But you should still always time it properly, because if you Counter after it
(and hit 2-3 guys), you will be in Critical Strike territory. If you made a
perfectly-timed blow for your first hit, then your next one will be Critical.
This also means that you cannot have a Critical Strike until you've had at
least one regular Strike. If you perform your way up to a 5x combo with
Batarangs and Counters, then no matter what, your next Strike will not be a
Critical, as there is no Critical built up in the queue.
Strikes can be modified with the Batclaw to grant a Batclaw Slam. This
gives a few bonus points in combat challenges, but for story mode the main
purpose it serves is to stun enemies and then knock them to the ground.
Another type of strike in the game is Rodeo Strike, done by riding a Titan.
This is a peculiar one, but Rodeo Strike counts as a strike in all significant
ways, except that it is scored slightly differently.
Failures: A strike that fails to hit an enemy will count as a failed move, and
end your combo. The only time a Freeflow Strike can fail is if it is performed
in a direction where there are no standing (important distinction) enemies.
Once Batman enters Freeflow, as long as you keep him facing an enemy who is
vulnerable to being punched, he will always successfully strike. It is also
imporant to note that attacking an armored thug or shield thug will be blocked,
and counts as a failed move, even for Critical Strikes. Interestingly, a
ninja evading a Strike will not cause a failure for Batman. This is convenient,
since it happens a lot. Rodeo Strikes cannot be blocked. Attempting to strike a
Stun Rod Thug will cause Batman to take damage, which also counts as a
fail-out.
---
2. Counters
- How to perform: Triangle /\ while a counterable enemy is attacking you.
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: Yes
Gained by starting the game, counters are mostly just a defensive measure, but
they are also sometimes essential in order to continue a combo, since taking a
hit will guarantee losing your combo meter. As long as you are not in New
Game+ or don't have the One Hand Tied challenge condition, you will receive an
indicator for counters in the form of a series of blue streaks appearing above
the enemy's head who is about to attack. These are no longer removed for Hard
Mode.
The Counter engine in Arkham City has been fleshed out a bit more for multiple
incoming attacks. This reduces these from being one of the worst things that
can happen in battle, to being quite good. If two enemies are attacking Batman
at the same time, you simply have to tap the Counter button twice, and Batman
will take care of both attacks. If three enemies are attacking, simply counter
3 times. I have never seen more than 3 enemies attack simultaneously. The game
also seems to be oddly careful about not allowing Knife Thugs to attack in
conjuncture with other thugs.
For incoming Knife attacks, the visual indicator will be yellow. Batman cannot
counter knife attacks, but he gains a context-based "dodge" to replace it,
also activated by /\. In order to perform this dodge you must hold /\, while
continuing to back away from the enemy. This can be tricky. This move includes
an upgrade whereby if Batman briefly releases the /\ between knife swings
(there are two required release points), at the end of the evasion he will do
an instant takedown on the knife thug. Note that this leaves the knife
available for other enemies to pick up.
Arkham City also adds a sort of counter system for gunfire this time around.
Once per battle (the gadget has a long recovery time) when Batman is under
fire, you can drop a Smoke Pellet using /\. This will usually cause the gunman
to redirect their fire, and Batman can sneak through the smoke and use a silent
takedown, if desired. It's important to note that this does not count as a
combo move, and should be done swiftly between moves in order to avoid causing
a failure case. I'll get into more about handling gunfire enemies later.
Failures: If you attempt to do a Counter and there is no incoming enemy attack,
it will count as a failed move, and will end your combo, no matter what you
attempt to follow it up with. Once you begin to master the game's combo system,
this is the easiest way to accidentally lose a combo meter.
---
3. Dodge
- How to perform: Double-tap X
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: No
Gained by starting the game, the dodge allows you to avoid some enemy attacks,
maybe. Personally, I find that from a defensive standpoint, anything dodged
can usually be better avoided by simply holding A and running past it.
However, there is a more useful version of dodge where Batman rolls over an
enemy's back. Again, thanks to Arkham City's penchant for naming all of the
moves, I now know this is called the Redirect. In my previous guide you may
remember me calling this the Enemy Dodge. By any name, this move will not only
stun the enemy and stop whatever they are currently doing (useful for
preventing incoming knife attacks), but it will also completely renew the timer
on Batman's combo meter. Dodging over an enemy can be done as many times
in a row as you like, and the combo meter will never fade as long as no other
Fail-Out cases are met. If you are not using Redirects, you must make certain
to only use a single dodge in a row.
It is important to note that the Redirect is most useful against enemies with
stun rods, as dodging over their back to get behind them will allow you to
combo them normally until they recover. This strategy also works on ninjas.
They will sometimes evade their way out of your attack, but it's almost always
good for one punch, which is handy when mixing in Critical Strikes.
Failures: If you are using ground dodges, the second dodge will always count as
a Failed Move, and end your combo. This does not apply to Redirects.
---
Special note: Cape Stun
- How to perform: Circle ()
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: No
In the previous game, Cape Stun was one of Batman's basic moves, and a crucial
variation. That is no longer the case. The Cape Stun subsystem has been
changed substantially, so I have left this in place where the Cape Stun
write-up was previously, even though it is no longer a variation. It is still
important, however, as a bridge to no less than three of the game's other
variations, which will follow this section.
Gained by starting the game, the Cape Stun will stun an enemy briefly. It
can be used sometimes to stop an incoming attack, but it is generally more
useful to perform either a Counter or Dodge depending on the attack coming in.
Cape Stuns can be chained indefinitely without causing you to lose your combo
meter. It is noteworthy that Cape Stuns are affected by Freeflow mode the same
as strikes, meaning upon entering Freeflow Batman will be fairly generous about
going out of his way to get to an enemy, as long as you were facing them when
he executing the move.
Knife enemies no longer have special defense, and no longer require Cape Stuns
to render them vulnerable.
Failures: Cape Stun will cause a Fail-Out if it does not make contact with an
enemy.
---
4. Ultra Stun
- How to perform: Three consecutive Cape Stuns on the same enemy
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: No
While Cape Stun chains were mostly useless in the previous game, in this game
they have added a new move called Ultra Stun. The Ultra Stun is performed by
executing 3 Cape Stuns back to back on the same enemy. This will knock the
enemy to the ground for an extended time-out. This (as well as any move
that knocks an enemy to the ground) will cause them to lose their weapon,
if they had one.
Ultra Stun can be hard to perform on Hard Mode, as aggressive enemies will make
incoming attacks. Whether you counter the attack or take the hit, it will still
reset your Ultra Stun counter. To mitigate this, it's best to perform Ultra
Stuns after Batman is in Freeflow, and target a foe away from the main group.
Ultra Stun is amazing for a couple of situations. For the Combat Challenges, it
does no damage and knocks an enemy to the ground. This is a guaranteed method
to set up for a Ground Takedown (many other methods that knock an enemy down
also deal damage, and may accidentally kill the enemy). It also knocks the
enemy down for a long time, meaning if you're interrupted, you may be able to
get back to them. This is a big deal since, in Combat Challenges Ground
Takedowns at the end of huge combos are major points. For the Predator
Challenges, Ultra Stun is silent, and can be used to bring an enemy to the
ground without alerting others. This can either be used as a long-term stun to
get away (if you've already got an enemy frozen and don't want to thaw him),
or to get to a quick Ground Takedown on the Armored Thugs who appear in
Extreme Predator challenges.
It's also worth noting that Ultra Stun is this game's new Titan-foe technique.
When multiple adds are involved I find this a bit more frustrating than the old
batarang-to-the-face tactic (which doesn't seem to work well anymore), but it's
also proactive instead of reactive, which is nice when you're on a time
budget.
Failures: Ultra Stun will fail against Shielded Thugs, but works normally
against Armored Thugs.
---
5. Aerial Attack
- How to perform: Double-tap X after performing a Cape Stun
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: Yes
One of the three new Cape Stun follow-up attacks added for Arkham City.
Frankly, my least favorite of the set. The Aerial Attack will cause Batman to
jump up and knock an enemy to the ground. This adds a hit, and extends their
stun period from the Cape Stun. Overall, sounds pretty nice, right?
Unfortunately it comes with problems. The button combination used for Aerial
Attack means that after Cape Stunning an enemy, you cannot Redirect over them.
This will instead result in an Aerial Attack. This may seem like an acceptable
trade-off at first, but Batman does not gain any i-frames during the Aerial
Attack. This means if you Cape Stun an enemy, and notice another enemy is
about to attack you, and you attempt to use a Redirect to escape, if you
accidentally Redirect towards the enemy you just stunned, Batman will Aerial
Attack instead, resulting in you taking the hit.
This means that using an extended chain of Redirects after every successful
move (a strategy I have long advocated) now requires a bit more care. This
move has been solely responsible for me almost completely cutting Cape Stun
from my normal combat rotation.
The only point where Aerial Attack really shines is enemies with shields.
The mechanic seems to be specifically designed for that, and it works well
enough. Shield enemies are affected by Aerial Attack the same as any other
enemy, which means it will knock them to the ground and cause them to lose
their shield. This is useful in small groups, but in large groups some
other enemy is just going to pick it back up, and you're still likely to
get hit while trying to perform it. I'll get into other strategies for Shield
Enemies in the enemy section.
Aside from that, Aerial Attacks are best used when there are few enemies
remaining. It can immediately be followed with a Ground Takedown, meaning it is
a relatively quick method to dispatch of an enemy, and can be performed at any
time, regardless of your combo count. This makes it useful in random 1-2
person encounters on the streets, but I find Ultra Stun serves this purpose
better.
Aerial Attack has a more interesting secondary called Directed Aerial Assault,
where once Batman leaps up to the enemy's head, he can instead go from there
and attack another nearby enemy. This technique's a bit more fun than a
standard Aerial Attack, but I find it's so much more difficult to consistently
pull off as to not be worth the effort. However, it does have the
advantage of throwing the enemies off their aim, typically. Whereas (at
least on Hard Mode) you are almost always hit during an Aerial Attack,
during an Aerial Assault Batman leaps to a different foe in mid-air, and
this will usually stop any incoming attacks and cause the enemies to have
to relocate. Aerial Assaults count as the same variation as Aerial Attack.
Failures: Aerial Attack will fail if you attempt to use it against an Armored
Thug. If you catch yourself doing this by accident, you can quickly adjust and
attempt to use an Aerial Assault instead, and it will prevent this failure.
---
6. Beat Down
- How to perform: Rapidly press X after performing a Cape Stun
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: Yes (variable)
In contrast to my lukewarm feelings for Aerial Attacks, I absolutely adore the
addition of Beat Down. This move causes Batman to go into a quick super-combo
against an enemy, ending with an instant takedown. If engaging a single enemy
via fresh ground combat, I do not believe there is a quicker method to dispatch
the foe.
Beat Down has some interesting stages to it. For the first few hits, Batman
does not receive any additions to his combo meter. Once Beat Down progresses
far enough it begins to add hits, but it adds multiple. At any time during
this animation, if there is an incoming attack, Batman can cancel out of the
animation with a Counter. This stage is of variable length, and will
continue until the enemy is nearly out of hit points. The final stage of Beat
Down is the finishing blow. Batman does not gain any i-frames until he enters
this stage of the Beat Down. In all previous stages, he can be struck
and knocked out of the attack.
Note what I said about the variable length of Beat Down's stage two. How long
Beat Down lasts depends on how much health the target has remaining. I have
seen it add as few as 2, and as many as 13 hits to your combo meter. How many
hits it requires does effect the length of the animation, however, and this
means that you will not always require the same opening for one Beat Down as
another. It's important to keep this in mind, as it can lead to some tricky
situations.
Beat Down also works normally on Armored Thugs, although due to their higher
defense or hit points it will take longer to kill them than normal thugs.
Failures: Beat Down will fail against Shielded Thugs. Additionally, Batman does
not gain i-frames until the finisher of the move, so he can be knocked out of
it. Otherwise, the Beat Down can easily be continued to completion, or
cancelled out of safely without failing out the combo meter.
---
7. Ground Takedown
- How to perform: R2+/\ after downing an enemy.
- Can be used as a variation starter: Yes
- Counts as a hit: Yes
The original instant-KO move from Arkham Asylum, Ground Takedown isn't
quite the staple of Batman's repertoire as it once was. With so many new and
exciting ways to instant-KO enemies, Ground Takedown's starting to look a
little old and rusty. Regardless, you'll be using it from time to time, so
don't forget it's there when you need it. Ground Takedown requires that an
enemy be laying on the ground with stars above their head before it can be
executed.
Ground Takedown is often best used when there are no other enemies standing,
because the technique takes some time to do, and Batman can be attacked (and
cannot counter or defend himself in any way) before he delivers the final blow.
If Batman is in Freeflow Mode, the Ground Takedown will seek out any enemy on
the battlefield and Batman will leap to them.
I would be remiss to not mention that Bat Swarm is ideal for finding openings
for Ground Takedown, and in fact I believe it may have very well have been
designed specifically for that purpose. I will discuss this further in the Bat
Swarm write-up.
Failures: If Batman attempts a Ground Takedown when he is not in Freeflow Mode
and no enemies are near him, it will count as a Failed Move. Once Batman has
landed on an enemy and begun the Ground Takedown, his combo meter is extended.
However, if Batman has to move to an enemy who is down, his traveling time is
counted against you. In other words if you being a Ground Takedown and Batman
leaps to an enemy, but does not reach the enemy before 1 second has passed
since your last combo extension, you will hit a Time-Out Fail. Also, if Batman
is forced to leap a great distance to a downed enemy, he will sometimes miss.
These are both good reasons to only use Ground Takedowns when enemies are close
by. Finally, and perhaps most frustratingly, if Batman leaps to do a Ground
Takedown while an enemy is standing, and the enemy achieves its full standing
status before Batman lands on them, he will simply land next to them and it
will count as a failure. Again, this normally will only happen if Batman has to
go a great distance, but I have seen it happen in rare other cases.
---
Special Note: Special Combos
The final four variations I will be discussing are the Special Combo moves.
Each of these moves can only be used under certain conditions. More on this is
discussed in the Unlockable Moves section.
---
8. Instant Takedown
- How to perform: /\+() after move becomes available (see Unlockable Moves
section below)
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: Yes
Instant Takedown is a move that must be purchased. As it suggests, whatever
enemy Batman uses Instant Takedown on is finished and removed from combat.
There is no special defense against Instant Takedown. Only Lieutenant, Titan,
or Boss-level enemies can avoid it. Otherwise it will dispatch any foe in the
game without prejudice. Instant Takedown is the staple of efficient combat for
Story Mode progression, and if used properly, its presence alone reduces the
overall difficulty of story mode itself substantially.
Failures: Instant Takedown cannot be blocked, and can only fail if there are no
targets. Batman is invincible to normal thug attacks during its animation.
---
9. Bat Swarm
- How to perform: []+X after move becomes available (see Unlockable Moves
section below)
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: Yes
Bat Swarm is the replacement for Throw in this game. I consider it to be a
substantial upgrade. Throw was perhaps the most underwhelming move in the
first game, and its difficulty to use was rarely worth the end reward.
Bat Swarm, while no less difficult than Throw to perform, is massively more
useful as a technique. When performed, Batman stomps the ground and a large
circle of bats swarm around him, stunning all of the enemies. Think of this as
an omni-directional Cape Stun. However it seems to have about twice the range
of a standard Cape Stun.
The main reason I am so taken with Bat Swarm is because of its application
to Ground Takedown. In the first game, finding an opportunity to perform
a Ground Takedown was the hardest part of getting a Perfect Freeflow, and
often either had to be used as the variation starter (not easy), or used at
the end of the battle when nearly every enemy was dead (which often meant
having to hold out without losing your combo meter).
Bat Swarm completely eliminates this problem. If using Critical Strikes to
build up to Bat Swarm, you are guaranteed to have an enemy on the ground as
the move becomes available. If you use the move immediately, it will the stun
every enemy around Batman. You can then swiftly follow this up with the Ground
Takedown, and go to the enemy who was knocked down by your Critical Strikes
beforehand.
This doesn't have a 100% success rate. Bat Swarm *does* have a range limit,
and it's possible to perform the move, miss one slightly out-of-range enemy,
execute the Ground Takedown, only to have that one enemy immediately run in
and attack you. Worse still, if you try to work this in late into a
fight, you may find that Batman kills the enemy that you're hitting to
knock down with his Critical Strike, resulting in no one being on the
ground for you to Ground Takedown. Still, even with these possibilities, it's
dramatically easier than finding a normal opportunity for a Ground Takedown. In
Arkham City, Bat Swarm is my only recommended approach for getting Ground
Takedowns in during combat.
Failures: Unlike Instant Takedown, Bat Swarm is an area attack, not a
directed one. This means that Batman will not attempt to reposition himself
for optimum usage. If you execute a Bat Swarm and there are no enemies within
immediate range, Batman will still hop into the air, but the move will fail
and you will lose combo. This is indicated by Batman hopping, but he does not
summon the cloud of bats (kind of sad...)
---
10. Multi Ground Takedown
- How to perform: X+() after move becomes available (see Unlockable Moves
section below)
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: Yes
Another stellar addition to Arkham City, the Multi Ground Takedown kills all
opponents who are lying on the ground at the time it is used. The simplest
way to think of this is by exactly what the name implies. Any enemy whom Batman
could currently use a Ground Takedown on, this move will dispatch all of them
at once.
Failures: Interestingly, this move does not appear to have any failure
conditions. Even if there are no valid targets for Batman to takedown, he will
simply leap into the air, you will lose your Special Combo charge, and then he
will land. You can still receive a fail-out due to time, but the move itself
cannot fail.
---
11. Disarm and Destroy
- How to perform: []+/\ after move becomes available (see Unlockable Moves
section below)
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: Yes
Disarm and Destroy causes Batman to move to an enemy who has a weapon of some
sort. The description of the move in-game suggests that it is for firearms,
but that is not entirely true. Batman will attack any enemy equipped with any
weapon (including projectiles), and destroy it. It is, however, most useful for
firearms, where it is just lovely. Note that this move does not dispatch
the thug involved, merely their weapon. In some cases (enemies with
projectiles, for example), this can make the move a worse choice than Instant
Takedown.
Disarm and Destroy has an interesting quirk to it. Batman will go out of his
way to find an enemy with a weapon to disarm. However, if there are no enemies
with weapons equipped, Batman will actually fall back to using Instant
Takedown instead.
When this happens, this is not merely an action change, Batman actually uses
Instant Takedown, in spite of your command input. This means that if you
perform Disarm and Destroy, and there are no armed enemies, Batman will move
to a foe and kill them instantly. You will not receive the variation for
Disarm and Destroy, you will instead receive the variation for Instant
Takedown. If Instant Takedown has already been used, you will not receive a
varation point for Disarm and Destroy at all.
In other words, in order to receive variation credit for Disarm and Destroy,
inputting the command is not sufficient. Batman must destroy a weapon, even if
it is just a projectile. Bear that in mind.
Failures: From a targetting standpoint this move behaves in every respect as
Instant Takedown, going so far as to even fall back on it in some
circumstances. The move cannot fail unless used in a situation where Instant
Takedown also would have failed.
---
"But abaddononion, you left one out!"
Is that what you're saying? Shame on you. Have a little faith.
12. Gadget
The final variation is a combat gadget. Using any of the game's 5 combat
gadgets will count for this variation. There's a lot of information to get
into here, so I've split it off into its own separate section. For each gadget
I will describe their combat application, their Freeflow Focus powered-up
state, and whether or not I consider this state worth using. I consider this
worth mentioning since using a powered-up gadget requires burning not only
Freeflow Focus, but also knocks you back to starting from scratch for building
up to a Special Combo (a disadvantage not present with regular combo gadget
use).
Note that powered up varieties of gadgets require the Freeflow Power Gadgets
upgrade to have been purchased. Once purchased, this cannot be disabled. This
can be a bit of an inconvenience. Freeflow Focus is actually an extremely
powerful state for Batman to be in, and it's often best to keep him in it at
all times. However, once Freeflow Power Gadgets has been purchased, doing so
means you can never allow Batman to use a gadget, or he will have to build
back up to Freeflow Focus. However, since I find none of the gadgets are
essential for combat purposes, this has only rarely impacted me.
Note that no gadget can be used as a variation starter (for standard Variation
purposes), because you must have at least a 2x combo for it to count as a
"combo gadget". This is also important when going for certain Riddler combat
achievements.
---[CG1] - Combat Gadgets---
1. Combo Batarang
- How to perform (combat shortcut): Tap L1
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: Yes
The Combo Batarang is a returning element from Arkham Asylum, but it has been
greatly simplified in this game. First of all, it can now be used at any time,
and has no combo requirement for activation.
There is no more Triple Batarang in this game, but there are a couple of
replacements to it. For one thing, Batman can now rapid-fire batarangs. If you
continue to tap L1, he will fire up to three batarangs in rapid succession
before needing a chance to recover. The other replacement is the Freeflow
Focus upgrade.
Powered-up: When powered up with Freeflow Focus, the Batarang will attempt to
carve a path that hits multiple enemies, as well as doing more damage and
having a longer stun time. This is more or less analogous to the old Triple
Batarang from the first game, but much more rarely usable do to the
requirements for Freeflow Focus.
Worth it? No. I like the powered-up Batarang. It's a very smooth, nice
mechanic, quite fun to watch, and better than Triple Batarang in nearly every
respect. But unfortunately it's not better enough to be worth burning a
Freeflow Focus with. The Freeflow Focus state itself is just too powerful, and
there are better alternatives to this move.
Failures: Like with a Strike, if Batman attempts to throw a Batarang in a
direction where there are no standing enemies, it will fail. You are no longer
penalized for rapid-tapping L1, as the batarang now supports a rapid-fire
mechanic. Even if you press the button beyond the three rapid-fire batarangs,
you will not suffer a failure.
---
2. Batclaw Stun
- How to perform (combat shortcut): L1+/\
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: No
The Batclaw is roughly unchanged from the first game. It pulls an enemy
towards Batman, keeping them stunned and reeling.
As in the first game, the Batclaw can be followed by a Strike to perform a
Batclaw Slam. However, in this game Batclaw Slams are dramatically altered
from the first game. Instead of a regular punch, Batman will knock the enemy
up into the air, and then roughly back to the ground. This stuns them for a
time, however it must be preceded with a Batclaw Stun and should not be
performed in the middle of a large group of enemies.
In this game there is an upgrade for the Batclaw called Batclaw Disarm. This
allows Batman to force an enemy to drop their gun when Batclawed. While this
only sounds okay in theory, I cannot speak enough about how useful it winds up
being practically. This game has several ways for Batman to disarm opponents,
including the disrupter, or Freeze Grenades. But the disrupter has a charge
limit, and Freeze Grenades will only stop a single foe, and only temporarily
(if they thaw, they resume fire). In addition, the Batclaw Disarm will only
affect guns and not any other weapon. The Batclaw's range is also substantial,
and can grab guns from great distance.
Powered-up: Freeflow Focus does not effect the Batclaw. Instead, its bonus
applies to the Batclaw Slam. This means that in Freeflow Focus, you can still
use the Batclaw freely without worrying about losing Focus. If you use a
Batclaw Slam, its powered-up variety will cause Batman to do additional damage
to the enemy (it has been a knock-out every time I've used it), but also it
will cause him to generate a large shockwave from the impact, which will stun
other nearby foes.
Worth it? At least once. The powered-up Batclaw Slam is pretty awesome to
witness. From a practical standpoint, though, I'm still not sure if it's good
enough to merit losing Freeflow Focus. However, the Slam generally seems to
cause a KO (this may be partly due to the damage dealt while building to
Freeflow Focus), and can in some ways be thought of as an alternative to
Instant Takedown, with a nice shockwave effect. However, unlike Instant
Takedown, this will still not work on shielded or armored enemies, so it's a
bit of a wash. The great thing here, though, is that the Batclaw Stun still
works during Freeflow Focus without deactivating it. This can be useful when
dealing with fights involving Gun Thugs (although frankly, a Critical Strike
will usually work just as well).
Failures: The Batclaw will fail if you fire it into a direction where there are
no enemies. Perhaps more dangerous to your Batclaw usage, however, is Stun Rod
Thugs. If a Stun Rod Thug is Batclawed at close-range it will stumble into you
and damage Batman, causing a failure. If you perform a Batclaw from a
significant distance, you can dodge over or out of the way of the thug and
prevent this damage, however it is often a risky gamble unless they are all the
way across a battlefield.
---
3. Explosive Gel
- How to perform (combat shortcut): L1+[]
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: Yes (per enemy)
The Explosive Gel oddly did not count for combat purposes in Batman: Arkham
Asylum. That has been skillfully changed in Arkham City, for wonderful
results.
When used the first time, Batman will drop an Explosive Gel at his feet. He
also performs a neat little cartwheel while doing this, making the move
somewhat evasive and relatively safe for combat use most of the time.
Once a gel has been set, a counter appears on the screen to tell you how many
enemies will be effected by it once detonated. This only further simplifies
the use of the gel, as you don't have to remember where it was or keep track
of whether or not it's safe to use, the game does for you. Attempting to use
the Explosive Gel a second time will detonate the original, knocking down and
stunning any enemies within its range.
Powered-up: Freeflow Focus increases the range and the stun time of the
Explosive Gel dramatically. These two factors combine for a truly amazing
result, where you can easily have Batman knock out an entire room of enemies
with a single blast, and they still stay stunned for a generous amount of
time. It's worth mentioning that you do not have to actually lay the gel
during Focus in order to receive the benefit from it. If you lay a gel
pre-Focus, and then achieve Focus, and then detonate it, Batman will do a
powered-up Detonation (not really sure how he manages this. I assume
mind-bullets).
Worth it? Yes. As much as any of the gadgets can be worth losing a Freeflow
Focus and Special Combo opportunity, this one is. It can be used to take out
an entire room, and set up Batman for all sorts of things, or simply follow it
up with a series of Ground Takedowns. Or, better yet, if you can perform a
powered-up gel and take out a room of enemies, but miss one, you can move to
him and perform a Beat Down. If you're lucky and he had enough health left
this will get you a fresh 5x multiplier, and you can immediately do a Special
Combo Multi-Ground Takedown, wiping out everyone affected by the original
blast. My personal best here is a Multi-Ground Takedown that killed 17
enemies. This move requires a bit of luck to pull off, but there's no more
emphatic way to wipe out an entire group, and it's really just plain awesome
to witness.
Failures: Laying an explosive gel cannot fail, and extends your combo window
the same as a regular ground dodge. This generally means you need to follow it
up with something else (I tend to opt with Redirect) shortly in order to
prevent a fail-out, but this is usually not a problem. However, upon
detonation of the gel, if no enemies are hit it will count as a failed move,
and end your current combo.
---
4. REC
- How to perform (combat shortcut): L1+()
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: No
For combat purposes, the REC causes an electric shock to any enemies it passes
through. It can be mainly thought of as a long-range version of the Cape Stun.
For this reason, it's not a terribly amazing move.
The REC's main application is for Armored Thugs. The REC is not only able to
still stun Armored Thugs, but it will also blow them back and cause them to
stun other thugs. This is wonderfully effective. This will also knock them to
the ground, where Batman can Ground Takedown them.
The REC will also cause a Shield Thug to drop his defense briefly, but a
Shield Thug can only be struck once after being REC'd. This is still very
useful when trying to hold a Critical Strike chain. Simply adjust your strategy
to fire one REC blast before Striking each foe.
Powered-up: When in Freeflow Focus the REC will cause a chain-lightning
effect, automatically hitting any thugs near the one you fire it at. In
battles with Armored Thugs, this can cause a satisfying amount of chaos.
Worth it? No. As I mentioned, in general I find the REC to be fun, but
underwhelming. There's very little that it achieves that I don't find the
Batclaw is better suited for (especially with the addition of Batclaw Disarm).
With the exception of Armored Thugs or Shield Thugs, you will rarely find
yourself in a situation where the REC is going to make much difference in the
fight, and that is still true even when powered-up. You're better off
preserving Freeflow Focus, or using an Instant Takedown.
Failures: As with the Batclaw, the REC will fail if it is fired in a direction
where there are no targets.
---
5. Freeze Grenade
- How to perform (combat shortcut): Double-tap R2
- Can be used as a variation starter: No
- Counts as a hit: No
In reading my previous sections here, you may have noticed that I'm a little
down on the gadgets. Overall I find them fun, great for adding spice to the
game, great for showing off to friends or just generally saying, "I'm
Batman!", but not practical for most real combat situations in this game. They
just don't quite measure up to the usefulness of the Triple Batclaw + Triple
Batarang combo from the Arkham Asylum.
Well that all ends here. The Freeze Grenade is excellent. If you are looking
for a combat gadget to make good use of, here it is.
When used, the Freeze Grenade will encase an enemy in a block of ice,
preventing any movement or action on their behalf. This is not permanent (they
will eventually thaw), but it is far and away the longest time-out period of
any of Batman's crowd control abilities. More often than not, you will end a
fight well before your frozen enemy defrosts. However, by some remarkable
manipulation of the physics of the Batman universe, freezing another foe will
cause the first foe to defrost. This means that you can only have one foe
frozen at a time (under normal circumstances).
This can typically be used to take out the most dangerous or annoying foe in a
fight (Gun Thug, Armored Thug), or simply to thin the herd in general, but
there are other applications as well. If Batman Strikes an enemy who has been
frozen they will fall to the ground, losing their equipped weapon or shield.
This makes the Freeze Grenade generally as effective as the Batclaw for dealing
with Gun Thugs, but with the added benefit that Shield and Armored Thugs can't
shrug it off. If there is one gadget to use in every situation, this is it.
The only disadvantage to the Freeze Grenade I have been able to find is its
combat shortcut. It requires a double-tap of R2, similar to how the Batclaw
was activated in the first game. I had hoped we wouldn't see a return of this
mechanic, but I suppose they ran out of viable button options for quickfire
gadgets. This double-tap mechanic makes getting off a freeze grenade just a
bit slower than a regular gadget, and also since its the only gadget that
behaves in this way, it can be difficult to remember when you want to use it.
I would much rather swap the shortcuts for Freeze Grenade and REC, personally.
Still, this isn't a good enough reason to not try to work this gadget into
your normal combat utilization.
Powered-up: When powered-up the Freeze Grenade will freeze multiple foes.
Worth it? Yes. As excellent as the Freeze Grenade already is, this is just even
more excellent. If you're in Freeflow Focus and there are only 6 enemies left,
you can easily take half of them out with a single grenade, and then deal with
the others. It can sometimes be difficult to keep Batman from ever going over
and hitting one of them, knocking them free, but even so, some enemies will
still be incapacitated.
Failures: Throwing a Freeze Grenade in a direction where there are no targets
will cause a failure.
---[UM1] - Unlockable Moves---
Certain of Batman's moves become unlocked during Combat. I will list them
here, as well as a breakdown of the Special Combo mechanics.
Freeflow - Usable once Batman has achieved a 2x combo
Special Combos - Usable once Batman has achieved a 8x/5x combo
Freeflow Focus - Usable once Batman has achieved a 12x combo (disabled upon
using a special combo or Freeflow Power Gadget)
Freeflow - I have removed "Critical Strikes" as a special mechanic, because
technically it is just a modification of Freeflow. Allow me to explain.
Once Batman has a 2x multiplier, he enters the Freeflow state. This will cause
him to recklessly pursue enemies across the screen each time a Strike is
performed. It also means that you can now perform Critical Strikes by simply
tapping the [] button once and only once between each attack.
However, performing a successful Critical does not effect your current hit, it
effects the one that will come after it. In other words, you do technically
make a Critical on Batman's 3rd hit. But it is Batman's 4th hit that will
benefit from this.
In the first game, I explained this as the combat system going Strike, Strike,
Power Strike, Critical Strike. Note that the effect is still the same. The
third hit will always be a Freeflow Strike, but it will never be able to be a
Critical Strike. Performing the 3rd hit properly modifies the 4th hit,
performing the 4th hit properly modifies the 5th hit, etc.
It's worth noting that the Batclaw Slam can no longer be a Critical Strike. If
you insert a Batclaw Slam where a Critical Strike should have been, then your
next Strike after that will be a Critical Strike. Think of it as a basic
queuing system. The game only tracks whether or not you currently have a
Critical Strike "queued" based on the performance of your previous strike.
Batman must also be in Freeflow in order for gadget usage to count as combo
gadgets, and therefore variations.
---
Special Combos - Initially, once Batman has achieved an 8x combat multiplier
his Combo Counter will turn yellow. This signifies that Special Combo moves can
now be used. Once the Special Combo Boost upgrade is purchased, this
requirement will be reduced to 5x. After using one of the moves, Batman must
re-enable them by performing further attacks. Spillover points do not factor
in. In other words, if you have purchased Special Combo Boost, and wait until a
9x combo to perform it, you will not be able to perform another Special Combo
until 14x.
There's an interesting caveat here. Even if Special Combo Boost has not been
purchased, Special Combo moves are unlocked every 5 further combo points after
the initial one is performed. In other words, though the initial Special Combo
move cannot be done until 8x, the next one can be done at 13x, then at 18x.
Some Special Combo moves add to Batman's combo meter, but unfortunately
Arkham City has been modified and these no longer counts towards the +5x
requirement to the next unlock.
Please note: for veterans of Arkham Asylum, this is a substantial change.
Instead of being able to chain Instant Takedown, Critical Strike, Critical
Strike, Instant Takedown, over and over again, you must now perform at least
one other hitting move between Instant Takedowns. This can be counters,
Batarangs, another Critical Strike, whatever. This weakens what was perhaps
the most effective combat tactic from the first game. I suspect that this
change was made due to the addition of Multi Ground Takedown, which could
theoretically hit 5 enemies all at once, immediately setting up for another
Special Combo.
---
Freeflow Focus - This move is activated once Batman achieves a 12x combo.
There's a few things to note here. First of all, unlike Special Combos, there
is no diminishing returns here. It is always an additional 12 hits Batman must
gain. Secondly, using a Special Combo will always return Batman to a "0 hit"
counter for Freeflow Focus. This means that if you build up a 6x combo, and
then use an Instant Takedown, you will have to go up to 18x in order to
activate Freeflow Focus.
The effect of Freeflow Focus is that the rest of the game is slowed down
slightly, but Batman is not. It's a bit like bullet-time, but it's actually
even beyond that. It not only give the player extra reaction time, but it
actually makes Batman faster relative to everything else.
Freeflow Focus is disabled and its counter reset back to 0 when using a
Special Combo. Once Freeflow Power Gadgets have been unlocked, using a gadget
(except for the Batclaw) will also cause this effect.
There's a lot to say about Freeflow Focus, but I have moved that into the
Putting It All Together section of the guide.
---[SC1] - Scoring---
Combos are scored in two different ways in B:AC, one for in-game experience
bonuses, and the other the point-system for challenge mode. I will discuss each
of them here.
1. In Game Experience
At the end of any non-boss thug encounter you get experience based on the
number of thugs you defeated, with each one being worth a certain number of
predetermined points. This is normally about 10 points for most common thugs in
the game. The method by which you kill them does not affect this experience
value. If you achieved a minimum of a 5-hit combo during the encounter, then
you will receive 10*X bonus experience for the battle. You will then receive a
variation bonus based on the number of combo variations used during the battle.
Here is a list of the variation bonuses:
Standard Variation
x3 - 25xp
x4 - 50xp
x5 - 75xp
x6 - 100xp
x7 - 125xp
x8 - 150xp
x9 - 200xp
x10 - 250xp
x11 - 350xp
x12 - 500xp
Gadget Variation
x1 - 25xp
x2 - 50xp
x3 - 75xp
x4 - 100xp
x5 - 125xp
2. Challenge Mode
The challenge mode scoring system is much more complicated than story mode.
Whenever you perform a move that adds to your combat counter, it will give you
points in the form of M*X, where M is the Modifier for that particular move,
and X is the number of hits in your combo after the move is complete.
Here is a list of the modifiers for moves I am aware of. I do not claim this
is complete:
10 - Strike
10 - Counter
20 - Projectile Counter
20 - Critical Strike
25 - Batclaw Slam - a punch that immediately follows a Batclaw
25 - Aerial Attack
10 - Special Combo Multi-Ground Takedown
10 - Special Combo Bat Swarm
25 - Special Combo Disarm and Destroy
50 - Special Combo Take Down
50 - Beatdown Finisher
75 - Ground Pound
10 - Rodeo Strike - caused when riding a Titan, and it hits another enemy
25 - Rodeo Shockwave - caused by pressing () when riding a Titan
50 - Lieutenant Takedown - kill a Lieutenant though normal combo
100 - Titan Takedown - kill a Titan through normal combo
100 - Knife Evade Takedown
10 - Combo Batarang
0 - Redirect
0 - Evade
0 - Stun
0 - Slide Attack
0 - Ultra Stun
0 - Batclaw Pull
0 - REC
0 - Freeze Blast
0 - Quick Explosive (note: this move will not even appear in you list)
Miscellaneous:
10 - Collateral Damage - This is a static 10 points granted when knocking one
enemy into another (most common during Rodeo Strikes)
100 - Special Combo Takedown - This is a static 100 points (not modified by
combo) that occurs when you kill an enemy by knocking them into an
environmental trap, such as electrified walls. Interesting note: The Takedown
Projectiles modifier for Campaign Mode causes Batarangs to give the same
effect as an electrified wall, and will trigger this same static bonus.
A couple of notes.
1. Multi-Counters - Whenever Batman counters multiple enemies in this game, it
is treated as a stack. So if you have a 3x multiplier, and perform a Counter
against 3 enemies, you will receive 4 x 10, 5 x 10, and then 6 x 10 points,
for a total of 150. The game performs this seamlessly in the background.
2. Multi-Hit Special Combos - A definite change. There are two Special Combos
in this game that can hit multiple enemies. The game treats them surprisingly
differently from everything else. In the case of either Bat Swarm of
Multi-Takedown, you will only receive +1 to your combo counter. However, the
game gives you points per-enemy. This actually can be seen on the screen in
the upper-left corner. Let's say you use Multi-Ground Takedown with a 5x
combo, and you take out 4 foes. The game will show "Special Combo Multi-Ground
Takedown - 6 x 10 x 4", resulting in a total of 240 points. This makes
Multi-Ground Takedown very poor for score.
Bat Swarm, however, is a different story altogether. Bat Swarm does little (if
any) damage to enemies, has a base multiplier of 10x, and then is mulitplied
by the number of enemies it hits. It also has a tremendous radius, and no
apparent target cap. This means that if you use Bat Swarm against a group of
10 enemies, it will be tied with Knife Evade Takedown and Titan Takedown as
the highest multiplier in the game. If you use it on a group of 15 enemies,
it's far and away the highest. The catch here is that Bat Swarm's value
diminishes as enemies die, which means it's difficult to combine it with an
extremely huge combo. Generally by the time you've reached a 60-hit combo or
higher, most of the enemies on the field will have died, and Bat Swarm won't
be worth much more than a Ground Takedown, for example. Still, there are
situations where this isn't the case. Any battle involving a Lieutenant, for
example. You can make the Lieutenant your first kill, and usually come out of
that with a 50 hit combo. After that you can throw a batarang, maybe perform a
Critical Strike or two, build the combo up a little more, and then use Bat
Swarm for massive points.
At the end of the round, there is a list of static bonuses you can receive, and
then a variation bonus which changes depending on the highest variation combo
you obtained during the match
500pts - Perfect Round - Do not take damage during a Round
1000pts - Flawless Freeflow - Kill an entire round of enemies in a single combo
5000pts - Perfect Fight - complete an entire challenge (all 4 rounds) without
taking damage
Variation Bonuses:
x3 - 100
x4 - 250
x5 - 500
x6 - 1000
x7 - 2000
x8 - 3000
x9 - 4000
x10 - 5000
x11 - 6000
x12 - 7000
Gadget Variation
x1 - 100
x2 - 200
x3 - 500
x4 - 1000
x5 - 2000
So let's walk through a simple scenario and calculate the points you would gain
for it.
You begin a battle by performing Strike, Strike, Strike, then two enemies
attempt to attack you so you perform a multi-Counter. Next you use an Ultra
Stun, Dodge over an enemy's head, throw a Combo Batarang, Batclaw, perform a
Batclaw Slam, and then finally use an Instant Takedown. For the purposes of
this example, we'll assume the battle somehow ends here.
Here are the points you would receive for each move performed:
-Formula, Points awarded, Total-
10x1= 10= 10 (+1 variation = 1)
10x2= 20= 30
10x3= 30= 60
10x4= 40=100 (first part of multi-counter, happens invisibly behind the scenes)
10x5= 50=150 (Counter)
Ultra Stun and Dodge give no points and add no combo hits, so have no effect on
your score. (+2 variation = 4)
10x6= 60=210 (Combo Batarang, +1 variation = 5, +1 gadget variation = 1)
Batclaw Stun adds no points. Keep in mind it also cannot add a standard
variation, because you have already used a gadget with the Batarang (+1 gadget
variation = 2)
25x7=175=385 (Batclaw Slam)
50x8=400=785 (Instant Takedown, +1 variation = 6)
This would give you 785 points onto your base score. In addition, you would
receive a x6 variation bonus worth, or +1000. You'll now also receive a +2
gadget variation bonus, or +200. You would also receive the Dark Knight and
Flawless Freeflow bonuses, +1500. Giving you a total score of 3455 points.
If you've read my guide from the previous game, you may recognize that this is
roughly the same scenario I used last time. I did this to illustrate a point.
In the first game, this same combo achieved 4215 points. In this game, it's
down to 3455, a loss of 760 points. What happened? Did the game get stricter?
Well, not exactly. The main thing this example suffered from was the loss of
the previous game's distinction between of both Batarang and Batclaw as
separate variations. Because this game considers them both gadgets, the same
variation, we dropped from a 7 variation bonus to a 6 variation bonus, a dip
of 1000 points. This was compensated slightly by the game's new gadget
variation bonus, which awarded us 200 extra points. This mainly accounts for
our 720 point difference.
In case you're curious, the rest of the discrepancy is because you can't
critical a Batclaw Slam anymore. In my original example we had Batclaw Slam at
x7 because of Critical'ing it. Since we can't do that, in order to keep the
examples close, I had to add an extra hit earlier on (the additional Counter).
This changed the scenario slightly, but kept us more or less in line.
Aerial Attack is a closer equivalent to what combo batarang represented in the
first game, so let's try using it, instead:
10x1= 10= 10 (+1 variation = 1)
10x2= 20= 30
10x3= 30= 60
10x4= 40=100 (first part of multi-counter, happens invisibly behind the scenes)
10x5= 50=150 (Counter)
Ultra Stun and Dodge give no points and add no combo hits, so have no affect on
your score. (+2 variation = 4)
25x6=150=300 (+1 variation = 5)
Batclaw Stun adds no points (+1 variation = 6, +1 gadget variation = 1)
25x7=175=425 (Batclaw Slam)
50x8=400=825 (Instant Takedown, +1 variation = 7)
Now we add 2000 for our 7 variation bonus, 1500 for Dark Knight and Flawless
Freeflow, and 100 for our single gadget variation. This gives us 4,425. That's
over 200 points more than the nearly-same combo in the previous game. These can
be accounted for by the extra modifier of Aerial Attack (Combo Batarang was
only 10x), and the new gadget bonus.
So what are the major take-aways here? Well, at first, it may seem like Arkham
City is a completely different game in terms of scoring and rewards, but it's
actually not that far of a departure. Things that worked in Arkham Asylum
still work about the same way, but there might be a change here or there to
keep variations consistent. In fact, the variation bonuses for Arkham City are
identical to Arkham Asylum all the way up to x7. Variations x8 and x9 are
slightly diminished, with x10 in this game being the same as x9 (max) in the
previous game. Variations x11 and x12 are beyond Arkham Asylum's old max.
Perhaps more importantly, though, the Gadget Variation bonus now makes a
somewhat substantial difference. Keep in mind that Gadgets do not have to be
put together within a single combo, just within a round. This means that if at
any point in the fight you use all of the five gadgets, even if you break
combo, you'll get a full 2000 bonus points per round, or 8000 extra for your
final score. Given how insanely easy this is to do, there is no reason not to
do this every round before beginning your actual combat approach. Whether
you're using my Combat Method 1, Combat Method 2, or a mix-and-match, you can
still knock out easy points by using all of the gadgets first.
---[PT1] - Putting it all together---
Knowing all of this is a good place to start, but at some point you've actually
got to apply the knowledge to a fight.
Whether you're going for bonus in-game experience or a high score in a
challenge, there are two main combat methods that are effective for scoring.
They can be used solely, mixed and matched, or put together.
- Combat Method 1 -
Method 1 is the variation approach. Each round of combat allows you up to a
+7000 point bonus for doing only 1 perfect 12-variation combo. The rest of the
battle you can do any way you like. This is definitely trickier than it was in
the first game, but remember the same rules apply: boil it down to a few basic
elements, slow yourself down (realize the timer is more generous than you
think), and learn all of the failure cases I mentioned previously and how to
avoid each one.
The key to mastering the variation process is to think of Batman's various
moves in segments. First, we'll start with the basic 5 elements. Strike,
Counter, Dodge, Ultra Stun (this is a basic because it replaces Cape Stun from
the previous game as our variation requirement), and Gadget.
In the previous game I had a strategy that involved chaining Cape Stuns until
you got a Counter off. In this game that is no longer as practical.
Unfortunately the Ultra Stun animation is much more complicated than just a
Cape Stun, and Batman cannot safely counter at all points during the move.
Since this is the case, it is now a bit more difficult to get the Counter off
safely during a combo. In most cases you will eventually be forced into a
Counter situation, but if you're truly farming for variations, it's not wise
to risk it. Instead, I recommend starting combat with a Counter. Run in the
middle of the group of enemies, wait for an incoming attack (projectile
counters count for this as well), and Counter as necessary. After getting off
the counter, immediately go into chained Redirects. Your next priority will be
getting off an Ultra Stun. Ultra Stun isn't easy to perform without being
interrupted by an enemy, so you may not succeed first time. Your best bet is
to try to redirect out to a straggler, someone who is separated from the rest
of the group of enemies. It may be useful to get Batman into Freeflow mode
before doing this (get another counter or an extra strike or two), in order to
get extra range for the initial Cape Stun.
The reason I am forcing you into getting Counter and Ultra Stun right off the
bat is because there's little use in proceding deeper into the combo until
they're complete. Going for an Ultra Stun is always risky (unless there's only
1-2 enemies left), and you're going to have enough moves stacked at the end to
not want to deal with it (believe me). Counters are easy to get off, but this
makes them easy to forget. Making sure to knock one out here may save you some
heartache with a barely-missed achievement.
The next two moves are Strikes and Evades, but we're not going to worry about
them. Those two moves will come naturally. We're going to be using Strikes in
order to build up combos between Special Combos, and we're going to be using
Redirects at various points in the battle to stay safe between moves.
Alright, so you've done your Counter and Ultra Stun. If everything has went as
swiftly and minimally as possible, you now have a 1x multiplier. Our next step
is going to be to use a gadget. In order for the gadget to count as a combo
gadget, we need to have a 2x multiplier. Go ahead and hit an enemy with a
single Strike if you need to, or get in an extra quick Counter (if one's
available). If it's preferable, you can also have done this at the beginning
of the fight (I usually throw a punch or two before going for an Ultra Stun).
Regardless, this is the state you need to be in: 2x or higher multiplier,
Ultra Stun complete, Counter complete. At this point go ahead and start doing
Redirects over the enemies. Keep in mind that chaining Redirects prolongs
Batman's combo indefinitely, making this entire process much simpler than in
the previous game. At some point between your Redirects, you're going to want
to use a gadget. I recommend the Batarang. It's not the best gadget we have
available, but Batman has a very quick release and recovery time on it. You
can slip a Batarang in between two Redirects and you will almost never get hit
by an enemy for it.
This completes the "basics" section. Remember, it's best to think of this as
the "Counter/Ultra Stun/Gadget" stage of combat. If you focus on those three
things, you'll be fine. Redirects and Strikes should be a given if you're
playing properly.
Now we begin the Special Combo stage of combat. This is a bit more complex
than it was in the previous game. Not only do we have 4 Special Combos that we
have to work with now, but the hits from the Special Combos don't count toward
the next build-up. This means there is usually 3 actions required between each
Special Combo. There are ways around this, but they're either situational, or
too risky to be worth it (three-enemy Counter, Explosive Gel). But let's not
get fancy here. We're just going to use Redirects and Strikes to get through
this.
First, we're going to try to take care of Ground Takedown, our former problem
child. It's not as much of a problem as it used to be, though. First, use
Redirects and Strikes until your combo meter is yellow. The best approach here
is to use one Redirect, then Strike that same enemy. Then pick a new enemy,
Redirect on him, Strike him, rinse and repeat until combo meter is yellow.
Once we have a yellow combo meter, we're going to do something a little
complicated here. You're going to need to find another enemy, Redirect over
him, and knock him down. There's a few ways to do this. The safest is
a Critical Strike, but if you're not good at those, you can use a Batarang or
Batclaw Slam instead. Now, quickly, you're going to have to make a judgement
call on whether or not that enemy is dead. The game gives a booming
death-knell when you KO an enemy, so you can pay careful attention if you're
quick enough, but this can be rough in the middle of battle. At any rate, the
goal here is to knock and enemy to the ground in some fashion.
As soon as you knock an enemy down, you need to activate Bat Swarm. Bat Swarm
will paralyze all of the enemies around Batman for a couple of seconds, giving
him time to perform a Ground Takedown on the enemy you just knocked down.
These two moves should be thought of as a single unit. It's not Bat Swarm and
then Ground Takedown, it's the "Bat Swarm/Ground Takedown" move you're trying
to perform here.
This is one of the bigger failure points and lynchpins of the Perfect Freeflow
achievement. Ground Takedowns are difficult to pull off under any
circumstances. Bat Swarm attempts to mitigate that by stopping most of the
enemies, but a lot can still go wrong here. Enemies have certain i-frames
(like when they're picking up a weapon off the ground), and if you're unlucky
they can manage to blink through your Bat Swarm and hit you during your
takedown. They may also be out of range, and either come running in or throw a
projectile at you. These things can and will happen to you. Sometimes often.
Don't let it get to you, just start over, try again, and try to get to the
Ground Takedown.
An alternative approach to this section is to move the Ultra Stun from the
beginning of the combo to here, and try to use it to achieve the Ground
Takedown. This is most useful when you've got a group of enemies with low
health, and you're afraid of killing them before knocking them down. The best
approach here, I've found, is to actually do the Bat Swarm first, then Ultra
Stun an enemy, then immediately Ground Takedown them. In most cases, Batman
will get out of his Ground Takedown animation just in time to Counter the
first incoming attack. It's not foolproof, but it's no more risky than using
Ultra Stun is anyway. If you go with this approach, then your first stage of
combat is Counter/Gadget, and your second stage is Bat Swarm/Ultra Stun/Ground
Takedown.
Once you finally succeed with the Ground Takedown, this is the first major
checkpoint of the process. You've now done the Strike, Counter, Evade, Ultra
Stun, Gadget, Bat Swarm, and Ground Takedown variations. That's 7. That sounds
like it's a long way from 12, but it's actually not such a bad thing. If you
can pull off a 7 variation bonus in each round of a Challenge, that's 8000
points (2000 per round). If, on top of that, you add each of the 5 gadgets in
at some point during the round (remember, the gadgets do not have to be part of
the same combo), that's an additional 2000 per round. With these two bonuses
alone you'll net 16000 points. Add on top of that the points for the moves
you're actually performing. Assuming the minimum of 5x multiplier needed to
perform Bat Swarm, it will be worth 200 points. The Ground Takedown following
it will be worth 450. That's an additional 650 per round, putting your total at
18,600. Keep in mind here that I'm still not counting all of the points for all
of the moves you're using, and you will have to perform other moves to complete
the challenges. If you stick to this method, even with very little success, you
can easily 3 star many of the combat challenges.
But the important thing is that from the 7 variation, each additional
variation is an extra 1000 points. So the points add up quickly here. You
shouldn't make it your goal to get a perfect 12x variation each round, but you
should always follow the process for it as far as it will take you.
Let's get back to our method. We've performed the first 7 moves. With Bat Swarm
complete, we're free to focus on the rest of our Special Combos.
We're going to start with Disarm and Destroy. Disarm and Destroy requires an
enemy who has a weapon, and as we progress in the battle, we're going to be
knocking more and more weapons out of enemies' hands. The sooner we work in a
Disarm and Destroy, the better. Disarm and Destroy also has the advantage of
falling back into an Instant Takedown upon failure, so we may accidentally
achieve our Instant Takedown variation while going for this one. That's
another good reason to go for it first.
But finally, and perhaps the best reason to go for Disarm and Destroy first,
it's extremely useful for removing problem enemies. If there is an enemy with a
Gun, Shield, Stun Rod, or Knife (prioritize in that order), then do your best
to use Disarm and Destroy to remove that item from combat. The danger of gun
enemies is obvious. They can shoot you at any time, ending a combo. Shield
enemies are dangerous because if you ever try to hit one (or use most other
attacks on them), they will block it. Their attacks also cannot be countered.
This counts as a failed move, and you will lose your combo. Stun Rod enemies
are vulnerable to more things than Shield Rod enemies, but they are immune to
Strikes from the front (something you'll be doing often), and their attacks
cannot be countered. Knife Thugs have no special defenses, but their attacks
cannot be countered by the normal counter method (you must hold the counter
button and back away from them). This isn't impossible, but it's a hard thing
to remember in the middle of most fights and will often result in a hit.
After coming out of your Ground Takedown, you're going to want to immediately
go back into Redirects. Roll along enemy backs and Strike them as before,
building up to a fresh yellow meter. Now, turn Batman to face an enemy who has
a weapon of some variety. Any weapon will work, including projectiles. Execute
a Disarm and Destroy. In combat challenges, it's best to quickly glance up at
the left side of the screen as you're doing this. The game will tell you if
you did a Special Combo Disarm and Destroy, or an Instant Takedown. It's
usually not that hard to judge, though.
If Batman performs and Instant Takedown instead, then your enemy didn't have a
weapon (this will usually happen if a projectile enemy throws right before you
reach them). Go back into Redirects/Strikes, build up a fresh meter, and try
again. If you get to a point where no enemies have weapons (happens often in
early challenges like Blind Justice), then just give up on Disarm and Destroy
and move on to Multi-Ground Takedown.
Our strategy for Multi-Ground Takedown is roughly the same as our earlier Bat
Swarm/Ground Takedown. The only difference here is that we only have to do one
move instead of two, and we'll have full i-frames during the move. This makes
it substantially easier. Still, step one is knocking an enemy to the ground
without killing them. Whether by Critical Strikes, Ultra Stun, Batclaw Slam,
Batarang, Freeze Grenade, Exposive Gel, or any other method, you must knock at
least one enemy to the ground without killing them. This is indicated by the
stars above their head, but they can sometimes be hard to catch in the heat of
the battle. Once you get an enemy on the ground, Multi-Ground Takedown is
effortless, and virtually cannot fail.
Remember, once you come out of it immediately go back into Redirects. This
will buy you time to think of your next move. This one's a bit conditional.
Have you or have you not yet performed and Instant Takedown? If you know you
accidentally used one while going for Disarm and Destroy, skip this step. If
you didn't or are unsure, use the same method we've been using. Redirect,
Strike, Redirect, Strike, until yellow combo meter. Then execute Instant
Takedown. Instant Takedown is extremely easy to initiate, and Batman's
invincible during it, so it's virtually failure-proof. This is one of our
easiest steps.
"But wait," you may be saying, "if it's so easy, why didn't we use it earlier
and get an easier extra variation?"
A couple of reasons. First of all, Instant Takedown KOs an enemy and thins the
field. This sounds like a good thing, but it's actually not. When we're going
for high variation scores, large groups of enemies actually work to our
advantage, especially if we fail out and want to start the whole process over.
Secondly, as mentioned before, Disarm and Destroy will often accidentally
result in an Instant Takedown, so it's wise to try it first.
An exception to this rule may be made in the presence of Armored Thugs.
Armored Thugs are problematic because, like Shield Thugs, attempting to attack
one will result in your attack being blocked and your combo failing. If there
is an Armored Thug on the field, feel free to move Instant Takedown up before
Disarm and Destroy in order to eliminate him.
After completing these three Special Combos, you will now have a 10x
variation. This will net you 5000 points per round, and is equivalent to our
old 9x bonus (which was max) in the previous game. I consider this to be the
wall to shoot for. If you can hit 10x variation bonuses in just the third and
fourth round of every fight, you're extremely like to get the 3 star,
especially with the high amount of points you'll be getting from that last
Instant Takedown (minimum of 20x50 = 1000 per round).
But of course, at some point you're going to want to get that perfect 12x
variation achievement, aren't you? Don't worry, I won't leave you hanging.
I've saved the last two moves to the end for good reason. The only moves that
Batman has left are Beat Down, and Aerial Attack. Let's start with Beat Down.
Beat Down takes longer depending on how much health an enemy has remaining.
Batman also does not have i-frames during the Beat Down animation (though he
can Counter his way out of it safely). For this reason, Beat Down is best
executed on an enemy who is already low on health (do not attempt Beat Down on
Armored Thugs when going for variation bonuses, it will take substantially
longer than on normal thugs). Beat Down is also easier to get off when there
are fewer enemies around to attempt to attack Batman. Depending on the number
of enemies you started the battle with, at this point you can have killed no
less than 3 (Ground Takedown, Multi-Ground Takedown, Instant Takedown). I find
that far more often I've killed 5 or 6, just from the extra Strikes and
Counters I've been laying out across the battlefield.
If you're down to three or less enemies, getting a Beat Down in should be
easy. Take an enemy out with a Freeze Grenade, then immediately Redirect over
another enemy. Now, if you can, Cape Stun that Enemy, and then turn and do an
Ultra Stun on the other enemy (the first Cape Stun is to prevent that enemy
from stopping our Ultra Stun). Both Freeze Grenade and Ultra Stun will take an
enemy out with plenty of time for you to complete your Beat Down safely, so go
ahead and finish the third enemy with it.
If you have more than three enemies, the previous approach is not ideal, and
you are better off using Bat Swarm. As previously demonstrated (Redirect,
Strike), build up to a yellow combo meter, and then Redirect over a single
enemy repeatedly until all of the enemies are gathered around you. This should
be easier than our previous Bat Swarm, because we do not have to knock an
enemy down to the ground first. When all of the enemies are close use Bat
Swarm, and then pick your target and go immediately into Beat Down.
The last move is Aerial Attack. You must be wondering why I saved Aerial
Attack for last. Well, I saved it for last because I hate it. Aerial Attack is
second only to Ground Pound itself in terms of how likely Batman is to get
punched out of it. Batman goes up on an enemy and comes straight back down.
This is worse than Ultra Stun, because with Ultra Stun Batman at least
continue to move forward, and will sometimes evade an attack out of luck. This
is worse than Beat Down, because Batman cannot Counter out of Aerial Attack
safely as he can with Beat Down.
True story: the first time I got my 12x variation achievement, I went 0/6 on
the last Aerial Attack. Six different fights I had gotten the first 11
variations in, and six times--with only a few enemies left on the
field--Batman had been punched during his Aerial Attack animation before it
registered.
There are a few ways to mitigate this problem. The first is crowd control, as
described during Beat Down. If there are only a few enemies left, use Freeze
Grenades and Ultra Stuns to take all of them out except for 1, and then use
Aerial Attack on him. Another method is to use Aerial Assault. During Aerial
Assault Batman will leap to a different enemy. This movement, while slight,
will often make the difference in whether or not an attacking enemy
successfully hits him.
Ultimately, at least for me, the strategy that works best is... you
guessed it: Bat Swarm. Build up yet another 5x multiplier, and perform yet
another Bat Swarm, and then you should* be able to effortlessly get an Aerial
Attack off. Aerial Attack doesn't take as long as a Ground Pound or Beat Down,
so even if an enemy is outside of the range of Bat Swarm you will usually be
safe to complete the move first (if for some reason they're still alive,
projectile or gun enemies will impact the effectiveness of this).
*I say "should" because in one of my six failures, I actually had an enemy bend
over to pick up a pipe during Bat Swarm, avoiding it by i-frames, and then run
over and hit me during my Aerial Attack. I cursed.
Knowing that it's a problem child, you may also attempt to work Aerial Attack
in somewhere earlier in the combination. For example, setting up for your
Multi-Ground Takedown. Or if you somehow find yourself at the edge of the
battlefield with a lone enemy, go ahead and sneak the Aerial Attack in and it
will be one less thing to worry about. In general, however, my luck with this
move has been abysmal. I prefer to leave it off until the very end of the
combo, assume it's going to be a total failure, and suffice myself with 11x
variations for the purpose of making points. If I happen to get an Aerial
Attack off, I just take it as a lucky break.
- Combat Method 2 -
Method 2 is the simple approach: Critical Strikes. Critical Strikes is a
tremendously powerful move, and relatively simple to use once you slow yourself
down and get into a steady rhythm of just tapping the [] button once whenever
you want Batman to attack (unlike what the game implies, timing here does not
matter. You have the full combo window to initiate your next Critical Strike).
Each Critical Strike is worth +2 hits, then adds 20x your combo meter in points
to your score, and they cause Batman to fly around across the screen pretty
wildly, which if used carefully to your advantage can be a great defense
mechanism. A 19-hit combo (3 initial Strikes, 8 Critical Strikes) is already
worth 1,980 points. Add just 5 more Critical Strikes to that chain, and you
will be at 4,480. Five more (a total combo of 39 hits at this point) gives you
7,980. For adding just 10 hits (it might sound like a lot, but it's really
not), we've added 6000 points to our score. That's more than a perfect 9x
variation bonus!
There are a couple of different ways to get these massive Critical Strike
chains going. The easiest (and least reliable) way is to simply use nothing but
the [] button. With some dedication you can make this work, but it will cause
you some grief with incoming attacks, Stun Rod Thugs, Shield Thugs, or Armored
Thugs. For many basic battles, however, this method can be applied
successfully.
The second step is to intermix counterattacks into your Criticals. Watch for
blue lines during Batman's slowdowns before the hits, and try to slip a /\ in
when it seems appropriate. This will raise your hit counter, but can be
dangerous because it requires a split-second decision on whether or not a thug
is about to hit you. If you tap /\ and no attack is coming in, it will count as
a failed move and you will lose your combo. If you fail to catch an incoming
attack, you will take a hit and lose your combo.
The third, and better step (the second step could arguably be skipped for this
one in most cases) is to apply a liberal use of Redirects between every 1-2
criticals that you do. A Redirect will buy you time to think, and in large
groups of enemies you can simply Redirect around until you see a good
opportunity to execute your next Critical. In fact, you can often Redirect over
an enemy at the edge of the group, then do a normal evade out into the
open. From here you can use your next Critical strike.
The final step, very important to remember for some of the challenges, is
intermixing your Criticals with Instant Takedowns. Here is a sample flow of
what can be done using this technique:
Strike, Strike, Strike, Critical Strike, Instant Takedown, [Critical Strike,
Critical Strike, Critical Strike, Instant Takedown], repeat ad nauseum.
As I've said, veterans of Arkham Asylum must note that the combo point for one
Instant Takedown does not count toward the build-up for the next one. Even
with that, this method is still devastating. The instant-death effect
of Instant Takedown will absolutely obliterate a battlefield, leaving Batman
invincible a significant portion of the battle. Instant Takedown also still
comes with a 50x modifier, making it substantial for score.
In Arkham City, you may want to consider replacing Instant Takedown in your
rotation with Disarm and Destroy. This is particularly useful in extremely
large groups of enemies with things like Stun Rods, Knives, Shields, or Guns
in play. If you kill the thug the weapon will be picked up and come back, but
if you destroy the weapon it is permanently out of play. This will also allow
you to build up longer Critical Strike chains for more points, but Batman will
still be remaining invincible for long periods of the battle. Finally, if you
get to a point where there are no weapons available, you do not have to switch
the button input you're using. The game will fall Disarm and Destroy back to
Instant Takedown for you.
The main time this strategy is not as ideal is when there are many projectile
thugs, but no other weapons in play. A Disarm and Destroy to take out a
projectile is almost never worth giving up the instant-KO of Instant Takedown.
Combat Method 2 in this game is made easier by the addition of Freeflow Focus.
During Freeflow Focus the rest of the game moves more slowly, but Batman
remains at full speed. This makes continuing massive Critical Strike chains
almost effortless, and it's extremely difficult for an enemy to slip an attack
in in time to stop you. The catch here is that you will not be able to
incorporate Instant Takedowns, as they will stop Freeflow Focus. You can,
however, still use Ground Takedown. I'll touch more on this in the next
section.
-Combined Methods-
Now remember, we can mix the two methods for tremendous results. Here's an
example.
We go into battle and recklessly charge our first enemy, and do a [], [] combo
against him. At this point an attack is coming in (an aggressive enemy with a
pipe), so we need to Counter immediately. We have a +3 combo. Next we do an
Ultra Stun, because we know to do so after our counter, then we Dodge over the
nearest enemy. Next we tap [] once to do a Critical Strike, giving us a +2
combo, and immediately we follow it by triggering a Disarm and Destroy to
remove a Shield Thug. After this an enemy is behind us so we Enemy Dodge
over him, then Ground Dodge away from the group of enemies once. We
throw a Batarang to knock an enemy to the ground, but another enemy is charging
us and we don't want to risk a Ground Takedown yet. Instead we do a Critical
Strike into the charging enemy, knocking him senseless. We Counter an incoming
attack, putting us at Special Combo activation (Batclaw Slam, Batarang,
Critical Strike (+2), Counter). Now we do Bat Swarm, then our Ground Takedown,
quickly finishing off one of the enemies on the ground. At this point an enemy
has already recovered and is mid-punch against us, so we tap /\ for a rapid
Counter. After the Counter ends we start Enemy Dodging again to buy a second to
think. Eventually we perform a quick chain of three Critical Strikes, to clear
the air a little, and then go into an Instant Takedown. When the Instant
Takedown is over the enemies who are still alive are back up on their feet, so
we Dodge away once, turn and fire the Batclaw, perform a Batclaw Slam. We
finish things off with a series of Ultra Stuns mixed with Ground Takedowns
until everything is dead.
As opposed to Arkham Asylum, I've replaced the finisher here with Ultra Stuns
and Ground Takedown. This is because Ultra Stun is guaranteed to not kill a
foe, meaning you can milk extra Ground Takedowns out effortlessly. Ground
Takedown is worth x75, not x50, so once you get a 20+ combo a Ground Takedown
over an Instant will net you an extra 500 points. This is half as
much as it was in the previous game, but you've also got more crowd-control
utilities to make Ground Takedowns easier to pull off.
Once you've narrowed the battlefield down to 3 or even 4 enemies, it's
incredibly easy to switch to Ground Takedown mode. Lob off a Freeze Grenade to
freeze one enemy, then continue to Redirect (remember, always Redirect between
moves), until you have an opportunity to Ultra Stun a guy. Now there are only
two guys still standing. As I've explained before, Cape Stun one of them (or
Critical Strike or Batarang if you prefer), and then Ultra Stun/Ground
Takedown the other. Now there are only 3 guys left, one of whom is frozen, and
the other is probably still Ultra Stunned. Keep using Ultra Stun/Ground
Takedown until everyone is dead. This will wrack up *tremendous* points. At a
certain point near the end of the fight you may want to allow Batman to achieve
Freeflow Focus to make this even easier.
It's also important to realize that the Critical Strikes technique can be used
for very quick chaining between your first and second Special Combo attack, the
same way it can be used to chain between Instant Takedowns as I mentioned
above. This makes flowing from one to the other much faster. In Arkham City,
it takes only 3 Critical Strikes to activate any Special Combo move. If a
Counter or other attack (such as Batarang) was involved, only 2 are required.
-Further Techniques-
Aside from these two main modes of combat, there are a few other things you
should keep in mind as you're working for points.
Gadgets are worth very little points. A Combo Batarang has a multiplier of 10,
a Batclaw Slam 25. That's technically only an additional 5x multiplier for
using the Batclaw at all, and then only if you follow it with a Strike and
nothing else. Now there are a few advantages to Batclaw Slams, but as far as
points go it's not overwhelming. Batclaw Slams don't Critical in this game, so
technically you can get two Batclaw Slams in for every Critical Strike, making
them worth arguably more than twice as many points. However, while the Slam
itself is safe, Batman's Batclaw animation is not safe, and it makes this
entire process take substantially more time. The overall point here is, don't
think of gadgets in terms of enhancing your score.
Except, do keep in mind that Gadgets are a separate variation score now, which
it does not have to be part of one combo. This means that for every
combat challenge, you have absolutely no excuse for not using every single
gadget at least once before the end of the fight, and netting an easy 2000
points. Beyond getting this variation bonus, though, I would not worry about
gadgets as part of your standard scoring tactic.
Perhaps to go along with it now being easier to use, Ground Pound is now only a
75X multiplier. It is still one of the biggest cash-cows for score, though. A
very useful tactic is to learn how many of the enemies in a wave you need to
kill, then start doing Ground Pounds on all of them. This can be setup with
the Bat Swarm attack in this game, as opposed to the gadget-heavy methods used
in the previous game.
Starting at a 25x combo (fairly easy to achieve with Critical Strikes in large
groups), 5 Ground Pounds alone will net you 10,125 points. Now it's often
difficult to get a full 5 Ground Pounds in at that point (after all of those
Critical Strikes, I find that most of the enemies are highly weakened and die
to the Batarang or next punch often), but you can see that when you can pull it
off, the rewards are well worth it. If you find yourself unable to perform a
Ground Pound in a lot of situations, Instant Takedown is also a good move. At
50 points it's still a significant reward, and safer to work into a battle
between Critical Strikes.
In fact, I hate to say this, but this method is actually a little overpowered
in this game. I was able to do all of the Combat Challenges using only Critical
Strikes, Instant Takedown, and Ground Pound. I did not have to rely
on variations, regular or gadget, at all. Not only did I complete all of the
Combat Challenges, but in several I beat most of the three-star cutoffs by a
factor of 2-3 *times* the requirement. The game tries to mix things up a bit by
adding in Armored and Shielded Thugs, but they're easily removed with Special
Combos Takedown and Disarm and Destroy (make them early priorities in the
fight). Ninjas are also added in as well, but ninjas are just as vulnerable to
a Redirect/Critical Strike as other enemies, so I find they actually make
little difference to the fight. They can't be disarmed, but they also can't
drop their weapons for other enemies, meaning Instant Takedown handles them
just fine.
---[EV1] - Environment---
There are a few environmental factors to consider during combat.
Electric Fences: Throwing an enemy into one of these will kill him instantly
and grant a 100 point, non-combo'd Takedown bonus. Hitting it as Batman will
count as a hit and reset your combo meter.
Flagged scenery: This is an important one. Certain arenas can have background
scenery that thugs can use as weapons, including pipes, hammers, throwable
boxes or chairs, etc. If an unarmed thug goes to one of these, they will have
to spend a second attempting to obtain the weapon, and then they will have
it available. When a thug attempts to access the gun boxes, an alarm will sound
to warn Batman of it. Once you knock a weapon from a thug's hand it remains
available in combat, and can be picked up easily at any time by another unarmed
thug. Scenery cannot always be fetched in Challenge Mode, however. Certain
pieces of it are flagged during various rounds as being available. These flags
are individual to a specific element, and do not apply to the weapon class as a
whole. In other words, just because one pipe is flagged does not mean they are
all flagged. Once an object has been flagged in a round, it will remain flagged
for all future rounds if no thug successfully uses it.
Unlike Arkham Asylum, these items can now be removed by using Disarm and
Destroy, and should be. Allowing items like Shields, Stun Rods, and Knives to
stack up across all four rounds can be very dangerous. During the early stages
of building combos, Disarm and Destroy should be used liberally until no
dangerous items remain in play.
---[EN1] - Enemies---
I've decided to divide the enemy strategy sections up into Challenge Mode and
Story Mode enemies. Most Challenge Mode enemies do also appear in story mode,
but the strategies I discuss for them are more relevant to Challenge Mode
overall.
-Challenge Mode Enemies-
There are nine main flavors of enemies in Challenge Mode. Unarmed Thugs, Pipe
Thugs, Stun Rod Thugs, Knife Thugs, Shield Thugs, Armored Thugs,
Projectile Thugs, Ninjas, Lieutenants, and Titans.
Interestingly, Gun Thugs do not appear in Combat Challenges. This makes
building huge combos for giant score much easier than it was in the first
game. They can appear in Campaign Mode, though, but Disarm and Destroy makes
easy work of them.
---
Unarmed Thugs: Your garden-variety thugs. All they can do is punch you, and
it can be countered. They also have a charge attack, which will happen much
faster than a punch and can be tighter to counter. Any Unarmed Thug can pick up
any weapon that is flagged as available and use it against you. All of the
other types of thugs mentioned above are technically the same enemy as this
one, with the exception of Armored Thugs.
---
Pipe Thugs: Pipe Thugs are like Unarmed Thugs but have increased aggression,
faster attacks, longer reach, deal more damage, and cause Batman a brief period
of blurriness after a hit. All in all they are not a significant threat, and
can be handled the same way as normal thugs. When I classifed these Thugs, I am
also including other pipe-like weapons, such as bats, hammer, polls, etc.
---
Stun Rod Thugs: Stun Rod Thugs are slower than others, but their attacks cannot
be countered. Also if Batman punches them, it will cause Batman to take damage
and reel. The easiest way to handle a Stun Rod Thug is either to roll over
their back then combo them normally, use a Special Combo move, Ultra Stun them.
Any of these methods will cause them to drop the Stun Rod. Once dropped the
Stun Rod can be picked up by other thugs. This should be a Disarm and Destroy
priority. If you choose to use the Batclaw, keep in mind that when pulled
towards Batman they can do damage, so you must quickly dodge over them or out
of their way. This is sometimes impossible if they were too close when you
fired the Batclaw.
---
Knife Thugs: Knife Thugs are no longer special enemies, they are now simply
thugs carrying a knife. Like with a Stun Rod, knives can be dropped and picked
up by other enemies. Knife Thugs have a special attack. It shows up with a
yellow indicator. This means that Batman cannot Counter it, but he must use
the Knife Evade technique. Since this technique is not safe to pull off
consistently, I do not recommend attempting it. Instead whenever you see a
Knife Thug about to attack you, simply Redirect over them. If you take the hit
you will lose your combo. You can also perform a Knife Evade Takedown on these
enemies, which is one of the most rewarding techniques in the game, worth a
100x multiplier. Unfortunately, given how situational it is, and how easy to
make a mistake, I never recommended attempting this at the end of a high
combo.
---
Shield Thugs: These are most likely the toughest enemy class in the game. A
thug with a shield is immune to nearly all sources of attack, and they have an
unblockable attack, as well as an unblockable charge. If taken out (Instant
Takedown or any other means), the Shield remains in play. These are your
number 1 priority for Disarm and Destroy. If there is ever a shield in play,
you should destroy it at the first opportunity. They are also vulnerable to a
few other techniques. If you are using the Redirect/Critical Strike technique,
you can hit a Shield Thug as long as you hit them with a shot from the REC
first. So it becomes a Redirect/REC/Critical Strike combination. Keep in
mind that they will only let you hit them once. If you try for a second
attack, they will get their shield back into place and you will hit it,
counting as a failed move. This can be used to make Shield Thugs relatively
harmless, but it's still best to destroy the Shield when possible. Aerial
Attack can also be used against them, and will cause them to drop their shield.
More often than not, in Challenge Mode this will just result in another enemy
picking it up (and likely cause you to take a hit during Aerial Attack). That
approach is not recommended. Ultra Stun and Beat Down do not affect Shield
Thugs.
---
Armored Thugs: Similar to Shield Thugs, Armored Thugs cannot drop their armor,
and therefore are not vulnerable to Disarm and Destroy. These guys should be
your second priority (first if there are no Shield Thugs present) for
disposal, but you will have to use Instant Takedown instead of Disarm and
Destroy. Armored Thugs are also vulnerable to the REC, and it will cause them
to be blown back into other enemies and fall to the ground. Armored Thugs are
also vulnerable to both Ultra Stun and Beat Down, but not Aerial Attack. If you
have to dispose of an Armored Thug and do not have a Special Combo available,
the recommended tactic is Ultra Stun/Ground Takedown. If there are too many
enemies to manage this, simply freeze them with a Freeze Grenade and get back
to them later.
---
Projectile Thugs: When a projectile has been flagged, Unarmed Thugs will go to
throw them at Batman. These can be handled easily handled with a Batarang
before they are thrown, or any of the other gadgets for that matter. They can
also now be countered, allowing Batman to throw the projectile back to the
enemy who threw it, or at another nearby enemy. They can also be handled with
Disarm and Destroy, but this is not recommended if there are higher-priority
targets (though it will sometimes happen by accident).
While here, I'll mention a note about Campaign Mode Gun Thugs, since it's
related to how projectiles work. When the gun boxes are flagged for combat via
the Dangerous Zones campaign modifier, enemies can only pull one gun from the
box for the entire challenge. This means if you Dispose and Destroy of the guns
in Round 1, they will not be present for the remainder of the fight. This is
recommended, since the bulk of your points will come from round 3 and 4, and
you do not wish to be shot mid-combo.
---
Ninjas: These are interesting enemies. They have a mix of both Knife-style
attacks (which must be Knife Evaded), and regular attacks (which can be
Countered normally). Their combos are much faster than regular Knife Thugs,
and attempting a Knife Evade or Knife Evade Takedown is even less recommended
here. Normally Ninjas will not allow themselves to be hit by any of Batman's
gadgets. When you attempt to gadget them, they will drop a small smoke cloud
and dodge out of the attack's way. They can actually do this with any attack,
including regular Strikes. The important thing is to not panic when this
happens. A Ninja evading Batman's attack does not count as a failed move. As
long as you stay calm and don't let it shake you by thinking it broke your
combo, you can proceed back into your Strike chain. Ninjas also cannot knocked
to the ground. Even if you perform an Ultra Stun on them, they will leap back
to their feet immediately. This means that a Ninja can never have Ground
Takedown used against them (this can be important to remember near the end of
fights). Ninjas should be handled the same way as normal thugs, meaning
Redirect over them and then Critical Strike, and Instant Takedown once
available. This tactic actually works for the gadgets, as well. After either a
Redirect over a Ninja's back, or a single Cape Stun (not an Ultra, they
auto-recover from it), you can tag them with one of Batman's gadgets. Using the
Freeze Grenade or REC is one of the few ways to stun them for an extended
period of time (but still does not allow for Ground Takedowns).
---
Lieutenants: A new addition to the game, these guys are excellent for farming
points. Like Titans, their attacks can hurt Batman through any i-frames,
including Instant Takedown, so be wary of that. Whenever a Lieutenant is on the
field they are your number 1 priority. This is not a problem, because they are
so easy to kill. Simply build up a 5x combo through any means, approach the
Lieutenant, Redirect over them to their back, pause for about a half second (to
reset Batman's behavior a bit), and then use Bat Swarm. Now turn and
immediately begin rapid-tapping [] against the stunned Lieutenant. If another
enemy approaches, Counter the incoming attack. The combo Batman uses on
Lieutenants is the same as the Beat Down combo, and can be safely countered out
of at any point. As soon as your combo meter turns yellow, activate Bat Swarm
again. Repeat until dead. This will build up a 50+ hit combo without breaking a
sweat, even in the fights where there are also Titans involved, followed by a
50x modifier Lieutenant Takedown. If the enemies are not being particularly
aggressive you can try to go beyond the simple 5-hit combo here, but be
careful. At a certain point, the Lieutenant does some move that causes Batman
to be knocked back, resulting in an auto-fail. For safety's sake, even if you
are not using Bat Swarm when your meter turns yellow, then you should
absolutely use it once it turns red for Freeflow Focus.
---
Titans: Titans have been touched up a bit for this game. Their attacks remain
approximately the same as Arkham Asylum, but the method for handling them has
been changed completely. Titans will still charge from time to time, but you
can no longer use a Batarang to stun them into losing control. This is
compensated for by the fact that the charge is not as accurate as it once was
(the Titan will not adjust its path if you dodge out of the way), and it does
not have the same distance (they will often stop after just a few steps).
Titans can be handled by Redirect/Critical Strikes, like any enemy, but they
are best handled with Ultra Stun followed by a quick 8-hit combo. In order to
easily set this up, like with Lieutenant, I recommended preceding it with a
Bat Swarm. Bat Swarm to stun the Titan and any surrounding enemies, Ultra
Stun, and then attempt to combo the Titan with Critical Strikes while
Countering any incoming blows. This is pretty easy, and allows you to go into
a Rodeo. While riding the Titan, you can steer it into enemies for Rodeo
Strikes. These do a lot more damage in this game, it seems, and will quickly
clear out a battlefield. I don't recommend doing this, as it does not seem to
be an optimal way to score. Instead, after you've gotten 5 hits with the Titan
(you want to refill your Special Combo counter), start mashing the () button
until Batman disembarks. The Titan Shockwave will keep knocking down nearby
enemies without doing much harm. However, its hits do not count toward your
Special Combo meter, so it should not be used until you have a yellow meter,
as I said.
-Story Mode Enemies-
These are enemies who you will only see in Story Mode. The bosses in this game
have a surprisingly liberal checkpoint system, with Batman returning at full
health if he dies. This mainly makes beating each of the bosses more of a
matter of patience and trial and error than actual strategy. The exceptions to
this rule are Joker and Mister Freeze, who have no checkpoints.
For the purposes of this guide, all of these bosses were beaten on Hard Mode
with no health upgrades, so overall I would say they are not particularly
challenging. Still, I will endeavor to write up what little strategies I can
for them.
If it's not completely obvious, this section will contain some minor spoiler
material, so if you do not wish see this material, skip to shortcut tag XB. I
have left a large whitespace buffer on each side of this section for your
convenience.
[ Spoiler whitespace buffer - Story Mode spoilers below this block ]
Solomon Grundy (want pants):
The reanimated corpse of Cyrus Gold is a much easier starting boss than Bane
was in Arkham Asylum. This battle is entirely about using Combat Explosive Gels
on the three electric panels on the ground. You can lay one on a panel at any
time, and then run around the room watching to see when the panels are open
(they are all in unison), and then detonate it. For the first round they are
always open. This round should be done quickly without taking any damage. When
lightning is flowing from the panels to Grundy, make sure to avoid it. When
Grundy falls to his knees, run to him and hammer [] rapidly. Batman will do an
auto-combo and end the round.
For the second round the panels will start opening and closing, spending most
of the time closed. Additionally, Grundy will summon flaming maggots to
attack you along the ground. These can actually do decent damage, so I
recommend a quick series of rapid-fire Batarangs to take them out. Just keep
evading Grundy's attacks (they're slow and very poor), and take out the panels
when open. Auto-combo Grundy again to end the wave.
Upon reaching Wave 3, you get a checkpoint.
Grundy is now tied to the far wall, and attacks from there. He will still
throw maggots, and they should be dispatched swiftly. He may deal extra damage
in this round, but otherwise I found him uneventful.
Wave 4 is actually the Penguin. He will be firing rockets at you. Just Evade
your way around the room in a strafing pattern to reach him, then perform
another auto-combo to win.
---
Ra's Al Ghul (the Demon's Head):
The first wave of Ra's is a battle of several sand soldiers. One of them will
periodically turn into Ra's to do a special attack against you. This may tempt
you to attempt to single that soldier out, but don't bother. The goal here is
to simply kill all of the sand soldiers, so just treat it like you would any
other fight, with Redirects and Critical Strikes. I recommend using Instant
Takedown at every opportunity it is available to speed things along.
The second wave Ra's summons a giant sand golem to fight you. Ra's himself is
hovering in the air a few feet in front of the golem, and he is your target.
You must use the REC to deal damage to him. There are a few small walls of sand
soldiers moving around the golem, and when these are in front of Ra's you will
not be able to hurt him. The best strategy here is to get as far away from the
golem as possible, all the way out to the edge of the combat zone. This gives
you the most time to react to the incoming attacks. Stand back there and
rapid-fire stubbornly with the REC, dodging out of the way of incoming attacks
from time to time when necessary. You should easily blow through this wave.
After finishing this, you will go into a brief scene where you must Counter an
onslaught from Ra's by rapid-firing /\.
For the third wave a massive wall of ninjas will be jumping onto your back.
This is another rapid-fire counter section, so just mash /\ until they're
blown off. If you're careful with your timing, you can stop mashing the button
as soon as Batman counters, and preserve a 20-hit combo here. From here's it's
simply a matter of killing the 20 ninjas. Like with wave 1, Critical Strikes,
Redirects, and Instant Takedown make quick work of this.
The fourth wave is a remix of the second wave, but it's much harder now. Ra's
has a solid wall of sand soldiers circling him, with only a narrow opening
about the width of 3 of them at one point in the wall. Your tactic remains
unchanged (get out to the edge of the battlefield, rapid-fire REC, dodge
incoming attacks), but it's a bit more frustrating to get in the damage you
need to end the fight. The golem is more aggressive now, which will result in
more dodging, and you have less openings for dealing damage any way. Whenever
you see the opening in the wall appear I recommend rapid-firing the REC
regardless, and just taking a hit or two if you have to. It may take you a
couple of attempts to beat this wave, but it has a checkpoint, so it's not a
big deal. This wave ends with another rapid-fire Counter sequence, followed
immediately by a Beat Down sequence (mash []).
---
Mister Freeze (Ice to see you!):
This is a great fight. Victor is the first true stealth boss of the series
(unless you consider shining the Light of Your Mind(tm) at Scarecrow as a
boss), and he's a thrilling experience.
Since this isn't a true combat battle, I'm not going to go into much detail
here. I will, however, tell you that it took me 8 Takedown techniques to
defeat him on Hard Mode. After each one of these you must perform a combo
on Fries to do damage to him. Once you use any of these techniques, Fries
does something to permanently disable that move for the rest of the fight.
When he throws his drones out, they can be taken out with batarangs.
Silent Takedown - simply walk up behind him and press /\
Window Takedown - Lure him over to one of the windows (he follows your
footprints), crouch on the other side of it, and hit /\
Grate Takedown - Takedown from inside of one of the grate areas.
Drop Attack (from railing) or Ledge Takedown - You can only do one of these,
as Fries will then disable all of the ledges in the room.
Electromagnets - If you fire the REC at one of these it will pull Fries into
it, giving you a chance to combo him after he falls.
Explode wall - Roughly the same as a window takedown, just use Explosive Gel
to trap a wall, then walk away. Fries will follow your footsteps and go to
it, then detonate the wall into him.
Ceiling Takedown - This one is a little trickier to pull off. There's a
ceiling on the side of the room that Batman starts that can be used to drop
into Fries. However, you can't get him to walk under it normally. First, you
have to destroy the breakable wall (right side of the room in the direction
Batman is first facing) under the platform. They you can walk all the way
across the area here, and make Freeze take a path that will allow you to
ceiling takedown him.
Zipline Takedown - I was seriously running out of ideas when I tried this one.
If you just fire the zipline across a doorway right as Freeze is walking out
of it, you can zipline into him, and it will knock him to the ground.
---
Joker (The Clown Prince of Crime):
Joker's less of a boss, and more of an epic battle. This is the only Story
Mode battle that is on par with the hardest of the Challenge Mode rounds.
This battle will consist of a large number of assorted enemies, 1 Lieutenant,
and 1 Titan. The Lieutenant spawns fairly early into the fight, and should be
dispatched immediately (standard Lieutenant tactic as described in the Combat
Enemies section). After dealing with the Lieutenant you'll have some time
before the Titan spawns. Use this time to get off as many Disarm and
Destroys as you can.
The Titan can be a bit harder to deal with in this group, and you may catch
yourself dying on him a time or two. Your best bet here is to Ultra Stun him,
punch him once, then Redirect over him, and then continue a chain of Redirects
and Critical Strikes into him. The Titan is large enough that a Redirect over
him will generally keep moving Batman enough to prevent incoming attacks from
being a problem. When you're on the Titan, make full use of the time, using as
many Rodeo Strikes as you can. Don't worry about using any of the Titan special
attacks, they will just reduce your ride time too much to be worth it. Once the
Titan is taken down, switch to Criticals/Redirect/Instant Takedowns to finish
things off.
Aside from this just being a standard--if difficult--battle, there are two
extra factors that you must keep track of. One is the trains that come through
the room periodically. As long as you stick to the middle area of the room you
will usually be safe, but it's extremely easy to forget about the tracks and
Redirect onto them just in time to take a hit. Just be mindful of this, and
you should be fine.
The other factor is Joker himself. Joker is mostly harmless. He's nothing more
than an standard thug, with invincibility. You can disarm him, knock him to
the ground, all normally. For the most part he shouldn't cause you much
distress, and can be safely ignored. Just try not to focus on him, as any
attacks made against him are wasted. Once all of the other enemies are killed,
Joker will die in a single hit. If you attempt to Instant Takedown Joker he
will simply knock you aside (tougher than he looks?), but the game will not
deduct the move from your pool and you can attempt to use it on another thug,
as long as you do not panic and fail-out of your current combo. If for any
reason Joker is causing you a significant headache, you can simply Freeze
Grenade him and keep him out of the main fight.
---
Clayface (or, the big twist ending!)
The tactic for Basil Karlo is not dissimilar to the one for Ra's. Get away from
him, keep your distance, Evade the attacks as they come in (Batman can roll
over the sweeping scythe attack), and just fire off constant Freeze Grenades as
fast as your fingers can tap R2. This serves two purposes. The Freeze Grenades
not only do damage to him, but they also slow him down, making all of his
attacks easier to evade. In fact, even when you're dodge-rolling through his
attacks, you should attempt to continue lobbing in Freeze Grenades to keep him
slowed, for defensive purposes.
One difference in this fight is that you're actually going to want to fight
in the corners of the room. These corners are trapped with explosives, and when
Clayface does the move where he turns into a large ball and charges you they'll
detonate. You may take a hit for doing this, but it's worth it, as the
explosions cause massive damage to him. Even with no health upgrades on hard, I
found the damage from his attacks to be underwhelming. After finishing his
health bar you'll need to charge him to execute the round-finishing cutscene by
taking the sword from his back.
In Round 2 he adds a move where he spins around, throwing mud across the
chamber. This is actually a pretty inconvenient attack, and I haven't found a
foolproof way to avoid damage from it. Just Evade around the room and try to
find an area where he's firing the fewest mudballs, and do what you can. Aside
from that he's roughly unchanged from Round 1, other than being a bit more
aggressive with some of his attacks.
Round 3 is entirely different from the previous two rounds, but all in all
probably less difficult. This is a battle with a large group of mud-creatures.
This is similar to the Sand Soldiers you had to fight during the Ra's battle.
The difference here is that Batman now has a sword, and all of the enemies go
down in one hit, including Counters. This is really more fun than anything
else, but it's not productive. The purpose of this round is still to damage
Clayface. While you're killing his soldiers he will periodically rematerialize
from the puddle in the muddle of the room and attempt to attack you. Throw a
Freeze Grenade or two at him here and he'll freeze up, giving you an
opportunity to go over and hit him with the sword. After a few of these,
Batman will finish the battle.
---
Mad Hatter (O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!)
Jervis Tetch isn't much of a fight, but it is technically a combat section, so
I figured I'd touch on it here. This battle will keep spawning enemies
indefinitely, so you need to keep your eye on the outskirts of the
battlefield. Hatter himself will periodically spawn out there and start
charging an attack. When he does, you need to move over to him and use a
Critical Strike on him. After a few of these, the battle will end.
[ Spoiler whitespace buffer - Story Mode spoilers above this block ]
[XB]. Section B: Riddler's Revenge
---[CG1] - Combat Challenges---
These are not nearly as difficult as they were in Arkham Asylum. The additions
of Disarm and Destroy, Freeze Grenades, Ultra Stun, and Bat Swarm allow you to
retain full control of the combat in nearly any situation, meaning you are
far less likely to ever lose combo. After mitigating dangers are removed,
nearly every round of the combat challenges can be done with a single
Redirect/Critical Strike chain with ease. With the extremely stacked Round 4's
in each challenge, this will generally result in beating the 3-star score by
dramatic margins.
The Combat Challenges are also conceptually simpler than they were in Arkham
Asylum. None of them are timed, none of them have trapped instant-death
floors, and none of them have guns in play, even on Extreme. For this reason,
most of my advice for each challenge is going to be widely the same, and
basically involves reading my write-up in shortcut PT1. Remember, ending
battles with long combo chains, and Ultra Stun + Ground Takedown is
overwhelmingly effective. Overall, I'd say there are just way too many points
for the challenges in this game.
Still, in this section I will attempt to point out strategic differences where
they exist.
A couple of notes about how I summarize the rounds. The first number will be
the number of standard thugs in play. This number includes all thugs
regardless of their equipment, except for Armored Thugs. All Armored Thugs,
Ninjas, Lieutenants, or Titans will be noted after the regular thug count.
After all enemy counts have been given, I will the enumerate the weapons that
are introduced into the field on this round. This will not include counts for
weapons that existed in previous rounds.
I will generally assume that projectiles are always in play. Rather than
noting when they are, I will instead note when they are not.
---
Blind Justice - 6000, 12000, 24000
R1: 3 Thugs; projectiles disallowed
R2: 5 Thugs; projectiles disallowed
R3: 8 Thugs
R4: 10 Thugs
Blind Justice is one of the hardest challenges to consistently get the 3 Star
on, believe it or not. You can still achieve it with a simple Redirect/Critical
Strike tactic, but you'll only break the wall by 10000 or so points. This means
that if you're not executing perfectly, just a few mistakes can knock you below
the line.
This makes Blind Justice easy in Challenge Mode, but it can actually be a
nuisance in Campaign Mode, where you want to 3-star it first time, every time.
To that end, I actually recommend approach Blind Justice with a variation
approach. More on this can be read in my Combat Method 1 under section PT1.
A 5 Gadget Variation Bonus and a 7 Varation Bonus will net 4000 bonus points
per round, or 16000 overall. This leaves just 8000 to clean up for the 3-star.
Assuming at least a couple of long-combo chains, you should easily be able to
make that up.
---
Survival of the Fittest - 8000, 16000, 32000
R1: 4 Thugs; projectiles disallowed
R2: 9 Thugs; 1 Knife
R3: 14 Thugs; 2 Knives
R4: 20 Thugs
Remember what I said about challenges having way too many points in this game?
This challenge is the poster child for that. The final 3 star cutoff is a
meager 30000 points, and you can break 80000 points with your Base Score in
Round 4 alone.
The only noteworthy thing to take away here is to Disarm and Destroy the knife
that is introduced in Round 2, and then the two that are added for Round 3. If
there are no knives available for Round 4, you should effortlessly be able to
3 star this challenge with your Round 4 score alone. If for some reason you're
struggling to hold combo, remember that using 5 gadgets at the beginning of
each round will add 8000 points.
---
Rooftop Rumble - 8000, 16000, 32000
R1: 6 Thugs; 2 Knives
R2: 7 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug
R3: 14 Thugs; 1 Knife
R4: 10 Thugs, 2 Armored Thugs
This battle has more variety than anything you've faced so far, but it
shouldn't be much of a problem. In Round 1 your main priority is going to be
destroying the two knives that are in play to keep them from adding up into
later rounds. In Round 2, you're going to want to build quickly up to a
Special Combo, and use Instant Takedown on the Armored Thug. Batman is very
insistent about this, and he will actually go pretty far out of his way to get
an Armored Thug with Instant Takedown, even knocking other thugs aside to get
to him. So just point Batman in the general direction of an Armored Thug,
activate Instant Takedown, and he'll do the rest. If you have a hard time
taking out the Armored Thugs and keep losing combo, make sure to do all 5
gadgets and some variations to make up the points.
There's also a knife that can be removed in Round 3, but it's not as much of a
threat now, as it's the last knife that will be introduced for the battle.
Round 3 is actually your big score-farming round for this challenge. It's the
most thugs of any of the rounds, and none of them have special defenses. Your
goal here should be to finish the entire fight in one combo, don't worry about
variations. Do constant Redirect/Critical Strike, activate Instant Takedown
when available, and make certain to finish at least the last enemy with Ultra
Stun/Ground Takedown (I recommend the last 2 to 3, however).
---
Hell's Gate - 8000, 16000, 32000
R1: 3 Ninjas (kick back!)
R2: 10 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug
R3: 7 Thugs, 3 Ninjas
R4: 7 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug, 6 Ninjas (late spawn)
This challenge introduces ninjas to Challenge Mode. I am genuinely uncertain
if ninjas are actually meant to be an additional threat in this game, but to
me they just come off as another unimportant thug. As long as you stick to
Redirect/Critical Strike on them for every attack, their presence should make
no real difference in your tactics here. Ninjas cannot be disarmed, and do not
drop their weapons, so don't worry about Disarm and Destroy.
Rounds 2 and 4 have an Armored Thug, so once again your priority there will be
a swift Instant Takedown.
Round 4 has a peculiar mechanic where, once the battlefield has been reduced
to a certain number of enemies, a fresh wave of Ninjas spawn. This may spook
you, but just be prepared for it, don't lose your combo, and treat them like
you do the other thugs.
One minor inconvenience with this challenge is that, because of the addition
of Ninjas, it be difficult to end a massive combo with a Ground Takedown for
the boatload of points it's worth. Ninjas are immune to Ultra Stun and Ground
Takedown. To that end, in Round 4 I recommend keeping a couple of thugs alive
until the end of the fight, and focus on dispatching the ninjas with
Criticals/Instant Takedown. When the Ninjas are all gone, use Ultra
Stun/Ground Takedown on the remaining thugs as you always would.
---
Funhouse Brawl - 15000, 30000, 60000
R1: 5 Thugs; 1 Shield
R2: 9 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug; 2 Knives
R3: 12 Thugs, 2 Armored Thugs
R4: 21 Thugs, 1 Lieutenant; 1 Shield
This is an interesting challenge, with a lot of variety in it, but it's
another challenge that suffers from "way too many points available" syndrome.
It has a slightly higher cutoff than some of the others, but it's still easy
to shatter that cutoff by more than 100000 points.
The first wave is your first exposure to a shield in Challenge Mode. Disarm
and Destroy it. This is your only priority for this wave. You do not want to
leave the shield floating around as a nuisance for the rest of the challenge,
and you certainly don't want it mixing in with the other shield in Round 4.
There's a bit more to do in Round 2. The Armored Thug should be your first
priority, via Instant Takedown. After this there are two knives that can be
disposed of with Disarm and Destroy. I recommend knocking out at least one of
these for variation purposes, but aside from that, they're not particularly
dangerous to leave around.
Round 3 isn't much different from Round 2, except that you have 2 Armored
Thugs here. if for some reason you're having trouble distinguishing the
Armored Thugs from the regular thugs, remember that Detective Mode makes it
much easier to tell. I will often do a fight in Detective Mode until I have
disposed of all yellow or orange items on the screen, and then switch back to
regular vision.
There's a Lieutenant in Round 4. He is worth an absolutely vulgar amount of
points. You can read more on Lieutenants in my enemy write-ups in EN1, but
overall the strategy is to build up to a Special Combo on regular thugs, move
to the Lieutenant, Bat Swarm, punch Lieutenant until Special Combo activates
again (it goes fast), Bat Swarm, repeat until death. Even allowing for
mistakes, you'll usually come out of this ordeal with a good 20-30 hit combo,
and from there should go immediately into a Disarm and Destroy on the new
shield. After that, it's just Critical Strikes and Instant Takedowns for
massive points all the way home.
---
Prison Riot - 8000, 16000, 32000
R1: 6 Thugs; 1 Stun Rod, projectiles disallowed
R2: 8 Thugs; 1 Knife, 1 Shield
R3: 8 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug
R4: 10 Thugs, 2 Armored Thugs; 1 Shield, 1 Stun Rod, 1 Knife
The first appearance of Stun Rods in Challenge mode, this challenge doesn't
have the total over-abundance of enemies several of the others do. It also has
the highest number of enemies who can cause an attack to fail you've
encountered thus far. If you're not attentive, by Round 4 you can have 2
Shields, 2 Stun Rods, and 2 Armored Thugs in play. This will create a scenario
where there are only 4 enemies on the screen you can attack regularly.
So let's avoid that. In Round 1, Disarm and Destroy the Stun Rod. In Round 2,
Disarm and Destroy the Shield, and preferably the Knife as well.
There's nothing to destroy in Round 3, but you will have an Armored Thug to
deal with. You can either Instant Takedown him, as always, but if you're
looking for some spice in your life, remember that hitting an Armored Thug
with the REC first will allow you to combo them regularly, if that's really
what your heart desires.
In Round 4 you're going to want to take out the Shield immediately. Leaving
the single last Stun Rod available isn't a big deal if you want, since it's
easy to track out of the corner of your eye and not accidentally attack it.
Other than that you'll be using Instant Takedown on the Armored enemies, and
proceeding as always.
Since this challenge is a little lighter on thugs than some of the others, you
may wish to use all 5 gadgets at the beginning of every round, to stack up
that free 8000 bonus points. I also recommend mixing in a few other moves for
the variation bonus. Remember, by default you're going to be using Strike,
Evade, Counter (likely. if not, it's easy to work in), Instant Takedown, and
Disarm and Destroy just to get through these rounds. Throwing out a Batarang
and activating Bat Swarm at least once are both incredibly safe, with very
little risky, and just adding in the two of those will grab you an extra 1500
points per round (7 variation bonus vs. 5) Add that to your 8000 for gadgets,
and you've easily squeezed in an extra 14000 points. If you want more, add an
Ultra Stun. But beyond this everything's really gravy, and holding combos and
using high-end Instant Takedowns should get you the remainder without trouble.
---
Blind Justice (Extreme) - 8000, 16000, 32000
R1: 4 Thugs; 1 Knife
R2: 5 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug
R3: 9 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug; 1 Knife
R4: 10 Thugs, 2 Armored Thugs
There's not a lot for me to elaborate for this challenge. If you've read up
to this point, you're well aware of what to do. Disarm and Destroy the Knife
in Round 1, Instant Takedown the Armored Thug in Round 2. Instant Takedown the
Armored Thug in Round 3 then Disarm and Destroy the Knife. Instant Takedown
both of the Armored Thugs in Round 4 (use Detective Mode for easier tracking),
building large Critical Strike combos, end battle with Ultra Stun/Ground
Takedown. Like the previous challenge, this is a challenge fairly light on
enemies, so remember to start every wave by firing off all 5 gadgets.
---
Survival of the Fittest (Extreme) - 15000, 30000, 60000
R1: 4 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug
R2: 9 Thugs, 1 Titan; 1 Knife
R3: 14 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug; 2 knives
R4: 20 Thugs, 1 Titan
In Round 1, use Instant Takedown to dispose of the Armored Thug (seeing a
pattern yet?)
In Round 2 you'll get your first Challenge Mode Titan. These guys aren't quite
as easy or rewarding as Lieutenants were. There's a more detailed write-up in
the enemy section of the guide (EN1), but the strategy is basically to use Bat
Swarm (to stop the other enemies), then Ultra Stun the Titan, then combo him
vigorously. As the other enemies recover from Bat Swarm you should switch to
Redirects/Criticals against the Titan from both sides, for safety purposes,
until another Bat Swarm is available.
Remember not to let Rodeo Strike kill too many of the other thugs. It does
huge damage, and will eat through them rapidly. Just build up to a Special
Combo with Rodeo Strikes, and then mash () until the ride ends.
After finishing the Titan Disarm and Destroy the knife. There's more coming,
and you don't need too many of them to stack up. Otherwise proceed with
farming this round for points as always.
Round 3 is really the round for making the bulk of this challenge's points in.
There's a single Armored Thug who needs to be dispatched with Instant
Takedown, but beyond that all of the enemies can be attacked easily, and there
are 14 of them. This should give you plenty of leeway to net a minimum of
25000 points here, and allow you to go into Round 4 already very close to the
3 star cutoff. Before this wave ends, I recommend taking out all knives that
are still in play. There's no need to let them stack up with the Titan in
Round 4.
Round 4 is basically the same as Round 2, but with more thugs. For the most
part this shouldn't make much of a difference for you, but it can make it
tricky to pull off a perfect Bat Swarm and stun the entire room. You'll likely
find yourself having to Counter out of the combos you're performing on the
Titan, but it shouldn't matter. If you took out the knives in Round 3 every
incoming attack can be easily countered, and then afterward you can switch
quickly back to attacking the Titan until the ride begins. Once the Titan is
down go back to Instant Takedowns as frequently as possible. As long as you
did well in Round 3 then even with a poor performance here, you should find
yourself leaving this round with the 3 star in the bag.
---
Rooftop Rumble (Extreme) - 10000, 20000, 40000
R1: 7 Thugs; 2 Knives, 1 Shield
R2: 7 Thugs, 3 Ninjas, 1 Armored Thug
R3: 15 Thugs; 1 Shield, 1 Knife
R4: 10 Thugs, 2 Armored Thugs, 1 Lieutenant, 5 Ninjas (late spawns)
This is another challenge where you'll be safely milking Round 3 instead of
Round 4. The cutoff's lower than the previous, and it has a Lieutenant instead
of a Titan, meaning you should be absolutely overwhelmed with points.
In Round 1 make sure to Disarm and Destroy the shield and at least one of the
Knives. In Round 2, prioritize the Armored Thug. Remember, Ninjas should be
treated no different than any other enemy (Redirect, Critical Strike), so pay
them no mind. Do, however, try to take them out before the last 1-2 thugs, so
you can use Ultra Stun/Ground Takedown as a finisher.
In Round 3 Disarm and Destroy the new shield. You can take or leave whatever
knives are remaining, whatever you feel is best. Try to complete all of Round
3 as one Flawless Freeflow combo and end with at least one Ground Takedown.
The usual Lieutenant tactics apply in Round 4. He should still be your first
target (he can attack through i-frames, so should never be left alone). Build
a Special Combo Bat Swarm on regular enemies then go for him. The Armored
Thugs and Ninjas are effect by Bat Swarm same as everything else, so you
should be fine for juggling the Lieutenant. After he's finished immediately
use an Instant Takedown on one of the Armored Thugs. Build back up to a combo
with Redirects and Critical, Instants Takedown the other Armored Thug, then
proceed as normal.
---
Hell's Gate (Extreme) - 12000, 24000, 48000
R1: 8 Thugs, 3 Ninjas
R2: 13 Thugs; 1 Armored Thug, 1 Shield, 1 Stun Rod
R3: 8 Thugs, 3 Ninjas; 1 Shield
R4: 11 Thugs, 2 Armored Thugs, 6 Ninjas (late spawn); 1 Stun Rod
There's really nothing special to note here. This challenge is essentially the
same as the regular Hell's Gate way. The cutoff is a bit higher, there's a few
Armored Thugs added, and some new weapons.
As always, your priority is Disarm and Destroy. This challenge will require a
lot of it. There's a Shield in Rounds 2 and 3 that need to be removed, and a
Stun Rod in Round 2 (you can leave the one in Round 4 if you want). As long as
you're using Redirect liberally the Ninjas can be ignored for the most part,
and should pose little problem.
The 48000 cutoff here is high enough that variations aren't going to get you
there on their own, so this challenge will definitely require at least 1 or 2
good Critical Strike combo chains. If you're struggling to get to the end of
the battle and end the fight with Ground Takedowns, then remember that you
only need to perform 3 Critical Strikes between every Instant Takedown. Once
Batman has built up enough combo, his Critical Strikes will kill enemies
frequently, and they aren't worth as many points as an Instant Takedown. It
seems like it would be a better idea to leave enemies alive to punch them
more, but in practice that's not the way it has worked out for me. Rely on
Instant Takedown for your points.
Bat Swarm can also be worth substantial points here, particularly in Round 4.
There's 19 enemies total here, which basically means that each time you use
Bat Swarm it has a 190x (10 x 19) multiplier. Even once you've whittled the
field down to 10 enemies, this still makes it the highest-multiplier move in
the game, and since it causes little damage it can be abused.
---
Funhouse Brawl (Extreme) - 15000, 30000, 60000
R1: 6 Thugs; 1 Stun Rod, 1 Shield
R2: 8 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug, 1 Lieutentant, 1 Titan; 2 Knives
R3: 15 Thugs, 2 Armored Thug; 1 Stun Rod
R4: 15 Thugs, 1 Lieutenant, 2 Titan; 1 Shield
This is probably the hardest of the Combat Challenges. In Round 1 you're going
to want to Disarm and Destroy the Shield and Stun Rod so they don't stack with
later rounds. Both of these need to be destroyed, because they will stack with
the Titan in Round 2. Since these are non-counterable attacks, they can make a
real problem.
Round 2 is a little nasty. Right off the bat you've got a Titan and a
Lieutenant to deal with, so this can seem extremely intimidating. Your first
goal should be to get a quick 5x multiplier, and then Redirect around the
battlefield until you get the Titan and Lieutenant gathered close together
(shouldn't take long, usually they're both in the same place anyway). Then do
a Redirect over the Lieutenant and activate Bat Swarm. Even with the Titan's
involvement, you're going to want to take the Lieutenant out first, by the
same method as always.
Bat Swarm will effect a Titan about the same as everyone else. Titans also
aren't terribly aggressive, and after coming out of Bat Swarm they'll usually
take a while to decide if they want to attack you or not. During this debate
period, you should have plenty of time to build a 5x combo on the Lieutenant,
then get right back into another Bat Swarm.
After the Lieutenant goes down you've got a decision to make. The obvious
choice here is to go straight for the Titan and handle him as you did in the
regular Funhouse challenge. However, there are two Knife enemies present with
this Titan. Knife enemies will prevent you from safely being able to Counter
out of your Titan offense, which can result in some nasty beatings. Coming off
the Lieutenant you should have a Special Combo charge built up, so I
recommend doing an immediately Disarm and Destroy, building up a fresh
combo, Disarm and Destroy, building up another combo, then moving to the
Titan with a Bat Swarm. Ideally these would all be part of the same combo
(if you pull this off that last Bat Swarm will be worth a ton of points), but
that's not essential. The priority here is getting off the Special Combo moves,
not making the points. After the knives are gone and you've got a Special Combo
built up again, move straight to the Titan, Bat Swarm, Ultra Stun, and begin
your beating. After the Titan dies take out the Armored Thug if he hasn't
already been killed by Rodeo Strikes.
Round 2 isn't great for points. You should get a lot out of the Lieutenant
kill regardless, but it's easy to take a lot of hits in this round and keep
things broken up. Overall, you want to net about 10000 points in Round 1, and
then 10000 points in Round 2. Mixing the five gadgets in should make this much
more achievable, and also consider going for at least a 7x variation. If you've
got 20000 points going into Round 3, you're in good shape.
Round 3 is where you're going to really need to make your points for this
challenge. Assuming you've take out all of the previous equipment, you only
have 1 Stun Rod and 2 Armored Thugs to deal with here. Fire off all of
your gadgets immediately and knock that out of the way. Then start off with a
Counter, use Redirects/Critical Strikes, Disarm and Destroy the Stun Rod (this
is critical for Round 4), Instant Takedown the two Armored enemies, and you'll
have a 5x variation. Toss out a Batarang, build up a combo for Bat Swarm and
use it, then try to slip in an Ultra Stun, maybe even a Ground Takedown. Don't
go for it if it's risky, though, try to save it until there's only 1-2 enemies
left. The main goal here is to get to the end of the fight with a huge combo,
preferably a Flawless Freeflow for this fight. There's 17 enemies total, so a
lot of points to milk, but you need to out of here with 30000 points for the
Round. Variations can net you 5000 of that easily, but the rest is going to
have to be combo'd out.
If you can get the 30000 in Round 3, then you should be going into Round 4
with 50000 of your 60000 points for the 3 star. This should mean that you have
it safely in the bag. Which is good, because a lot can go wrong in Round 4.
Round 4 is approximately the same as Round 2, except there's an extra Titan
and a Shield enemy added in. We're going to follow the same pattern before as
far as starting the fight off. Build a quick 5x combo, go to the Lieutenant,
Bat Swarm/combo him until he goes down. Coming off of the Lieutenant you'll
have a Special Combo, so immediately Disarm and Destroy the shield. Again, you
don't want non-counterable attacks on the field while trying to combo a Titan.
Unfortunately, you've got 2 Titans, so there are going to be non-counterable
attacks on the field. We deal with this as best we can. When you Ultra Stun a
Titan they'll stand harmlessly for a few seconds, usually as an opening so you
can combo them. We're going to need to do this to both Titans, to buy us a
decent opening. The best bet to start this is, of course, Bat Swarm. This will
stun both Titans (and the rest of the enemies) just barely long enough for you
to Ultra Stun one of the Titans. Then you have to immediately move to the
other Titan and try to Ultra Stun him. This is going to be hard, because all
of the enemies will have recovered from Bat Swarm, and you almost certainly
will get hit. Just press through and try to get the Ultra Stun off. Once you
do, start comboing one of the Titans. Ideally, you'd move back to the first
Titan you Ultra Stunned and start with him (hopefully he's still in his dazed
window). That will give you the full dazed window of the second Titan, minus
counter time, to deal some damage.
Alternately, you can try to just Redirect/Critical Strike back and forth over
one of the Titans, but this will often result in the other Titan smacking you.
Either way, eventually your goal is to get on top of the Titan. As in the
previous game, one of the best ways to hurt Titans is with another Titan. So
once you're on top of this Titan, guide him straight to the other, and do your
best to make them hit each other as many times as possible during the ride. Do
not use either of the special moves. They will shorten the time of your ride,
and do not do enough damage to be worth it. While you're trying to weaken the
Titan you should also be doing substantial Rodeo Strike damage to the other
enemies on the screen, leveling the field a bit.
The ride will end and you should have another Bat Swarm built up, so use it
again and repeat the process. With luck, it will only take 1 Rodeo ride to get
both of the Titans down to low enough health that your next full combo against
them will kill them. At any rate, from this point on the strategy of the
battle remains widely unchanged, and it's just a matter of being able to
execute it before you run out of health. For this reason, the 3-star for this
challenge should be made in Rounds 1-3 (or at least most of it), and Round 4
is about focusing on survival.
---
Prison Riot (Extreme) - 12000, 24000, 48000
R1: 11 Thugs; 2 Knives, 2 Stun Rods
R2: 12 Thugs, 3 Ninjas; 1 Shield, 1 Knife
R3: 12 Thugs, 1 Armored Thug
R4: 12 Thugs, 3 Armored Thug, 5 Ninjas (late spawn); 1 Stun Rod, 1 Knife, 1
Shield
Looking at the list, I suppose this battle is meant to be a mix of all of the
challenges you've encountered previously, excepting Lieutenants and Titans.
Overall, it just comes across as a huge relief after Funhouse Brawl.
Everything I've taught you up until now still applies here, and all works just
fine. Disarm and Destroy all weapons in Rounds 1 and 2, and the Shield in
Round 4. Instant Takedown the Armored Thugs in Rounds 3 and 4. There's a late
Ninja spawn in Round 4, don't let it catch you off-guard, don't let it break
your combo. Use all gadgets at the beginning of every round, try to get at
least a 7x variation bonus evey round. Bat Swarm is worth major points in
every round of this challenge, so feel free to use it every time your Special
Combo builds up until you get down to 7 or so enemies. At that point Bat Swarm
isn't worth enough more than Instant Takedown to continue using it, so I'd
switch to Instants until you're ready to switch to Ground Takedowns (4 enemies
or less). I believe that if you can get all of the 3-stars up to this
challenge, you can 3-star it with ease.
---[CM1] - Campaign Mode---
Since a major component of Campaign Mode include the Combat Challenges
themselves, I'd be remiss not to at least touch on some strategies for it. For
the most part, this is outside of the scope of this guide, since it involves
more resource allocation/stealth section tactics. Still, I'll give pointers
where I can, and let you know what worked for me.
Keep in mind that for the most part, I am a combat player. This means that I
will always take the worst handicaps available to me in Combat Challenges, and
save the bonuses for Stealth challenges, except in cases where it absolutely
makes no sense. Hopefully if you're reading this guide you are also a combat
player, and if so the advice here should work for you. If, however, you find
the Stealth Challenges to be significantly easier than the Combat Challenges,
then you will need to find a radically different approach from mine.
Each individual challenge is labeled with a (C) for Combat, or (P) for
Predator. After each challenge name I have posted the recommended Medals to
take in that challenge for what I consider the easiest path to a perfect 9
Medal run. If you wish to know more about a Predator Challenge's Medal
requirements, you can use section PM1.
---
Search and Destroy
(P)Meltdown Mayhem <>
(C)Blind Justice <>
(P)Police Brutality <>
Taking the Time Limit for the Combat Challenge is an obvious choice, since
Instant Takedown makes it so easy to keep well ahead of it. Protective Aura, on
the other hand, is actually a modifier that is far more annoying in Combat than
in Predator. It makes one enemy invulnerable, and moves around the battlefield
(on the last enemy it simply toggles on and off). In Predator it can easily be
watched for and worked around (especially as there's no Time Limit), but Combat
moves much quicker, and it can be a hassle. It's best to take Protective Aura
for Predator Missions when possible. You want to take Protective Aura for
Meltdown Mayhem and save Replenishing Health for Police Brutality, simply
because you always want the first challenge of a section to be the hardest.
Using a Restart on the first challenge does not deduct from your Retry counter.
Since this is the case, it's always best to make the final challenge as easy as
possible, especially if it's a Predator challenge.
---
Street Justice
(C)Rooftop Rumble <>
(P)Natural Selection <>
(C)Survival of the Fittest
Our first mission here is a Combat Challenge, so go ahead and knock all of the
handicaps out of the way immediately. One Hand Tied disables the Counter
indicators in Combat, but this isn't a big deal if you just drop counters and
use Evades instead. On the other hand, in Predator it removes the ability to do
Silent Takedown from behind, which is a huge handicap. Decreased Health is
about an equal handicap regardless of where it goes, and should really just go
to whatever mission you find the easiest. For me, it always goes to the first
Combat mission, where I consider it harmless. With proper use of Redirects you
should never be getting hit in most Combat missions anyway.
Takedown Projectiles is very poor for combat, since it only gives a static 100
points for each use, therefore is absolutely abysmal for score. It is, on the
other hand, absolutely sublime for Predator maps. Once you get your 3 medals
out of the way, go up to a Vantage Point and play Zeus with the remaining foes.
They will know your wrath, and they will build temples to appease you.
---
Offensive Maneuvers
(C)Funhouse Brawl <>
(P)End of the Line <>
(C)Hell's Gate
Danger Zones is basically what "Extreme" mode was in Arkham Asylum. It means
guns for Combat, and booby-trapped Vantage Points for Predator. Scattered
Weapons means Projectiles for Combat, and mines for Predator. Both of these
are far more dangerous in Predator than in Combat (mainly because of Disarm and
Destroy), and should be knocked out of the way in the first Combat mission. For
the Predator mission we take the Free Medal for End of the Line. This is
because End of the Line has a medal that requires you to appear out of nowhere
and scare a terrified enemy. This isn't actually hard to do, but it can be
impossible. Depending on how you handle the Predator challenge, if too many
enemies see you and manage to shoot you, they will actually wind up being less
scared by the end of the fight, and will never progress beyond the "Nervous"
state, no matter what you do to them. This will make Scare Tactics impossible
to achieve. The Free Medal here eliminates that problem.
---
City Invader
(P)Top of the World
(C)Prison Riot <>
(P)Lost City <>
Take no Medals for the first challenge here. Super Powered is more useful in
Lost City, mainly due to Grate Moves and Breaking and Entering. It doesn't
make a huge difference in either, though. For the Combat mission take all of
the handicaps again. Disabling gadgets in Predator is a huge inconvenience,
but barely noticeable in combat. Increased Aggression gives enemies more
health, among other things, and this can actually result in the ability to
score even more points in Combat mode, making 3-Medal runs even easier.
If you're really interested in having Super Powered in the Combat mission
where it's more useful (there are armored and shielded thugs here), then you
can move Decreased Health into Top of the World. It really doesn't make it
much harder, and since it's your first challenge retries are free.
---
Midnight Assault
(P)Natural Selection (Extreme) <>
(C)Hell's Gate (Extreme) <>
(P)Meltdown Mayhem (Extreme) <>
Increased Aggression, Scattered Weapons, and Danger Zones are all obvious
choices for the lone Combat mission here. Scattered Weapons and Danger Zones
are far too dangerous for Predator missions, and Increased Aggression is
arguably a benefit in Combat, for scoring purposes.
You may be wondering why I take the Free Medal in the first mission, when it
explicitely violates my rule about making the last mission as easy as
possible, since you have free retries for the first. There's a reason for
this. Natural Selection has Boom Box, which I find to be one of the most
annoying Predator medals in the game. It's not so bad as long as you
specifically save your Sonic Batarang just for the last guy, but that
means you lose the instant-kill Sonic Batarang represents. All in all, nothing
in Meltdown Mayhem is very hard, and I would just prefer not having to deal
with Boom Box at all, ever.
If you don't find Boom Box that much of a problem, or if you're really
struggling with Meltdown Extreme, then go ahead and move the Free Medal. You
have infinite retries for Natural Selection, so that approach may work out
better for you.
---
Hostile Takeover
(C)Prison Riot (Extreme) <>
(P)Police Brutality (Extreme) <>
(C)Funhouse Brawl (Extreme) <>
In the first challenge we take Decreased Health, Time Limit, and One Hand Tied.
All pretty standard combat handicaps at this point. Prison Riot can be
somewhat difficult to come in under the time wire, since there are so many
enemies, so just focus on using lots of Instant Takedowns and don't try to get
fancy with score, just don't lose combo. It's possible to have the full 3
Medal cutoff here by the end of Round 2, so you have lots of leeway, in
addition to infinite retries.
For Police Brutality we take Protective Aura, as per usual. It's only a minor
inconvenience for Predator missions.
We save Super Powered for Funhouse Brawl. Normally I don't take an enhancer
for Combat, but Funhouse Brawl (Extreme) is the hardest of the combat
challenges, with two Titans and a Lieutenant in Round 4, as well as a large
assortment of Armored, Shield, and Stun Rod enemies. Not having to deal with
these foes is a much bigger benefit than having faster movement speed in
Police Brutality, a challenge where you can pretty much stick to the vantage
points the entire time.
---
Double Jeopardy
(P)Lost City (Extreme) <>
(C)Rooftop Rumble (Extreme) <>
(P)End of the Line (Extreme) <>
This is an easy campaign, even with all of the challenges on Extreme. Because
of this, there are several different ways to approach it.
Lost City is probably actually the hardest challenge in the mix. In
particular, the Bullet Proof medal may give you trouble, and you may wish to
use your Free Medal modifier there. Since Lost City was the first challenge
and therefore can't consume retries, I preferred to simply keep hitting restart
until I got it right. You should immediately perform Switch Hitter. From
there, go to the vantage points and rotate counter-clockwise around the room
back to Batman's starting location. All of the soldiers will wind up on the
opposite side of the room, and you can get Highspeed Impact. From here, it's
just a matter of taking enemies out with Inverted Takedowns without being
noticed.
Rooftop Rumble should be no trouble with Increased Aggression and Gadget
Malfunction. This is one of those challenges with an overabundance of points
in it, due to the Lieutenant in the last wave. We'd normally take Scattered
Weapons here, but we won't be touching the ground in End of the Line, so it
will have no effect whatsoever there.
If you follow the medal layout I've outlined here, then End of the Line is
outrageously easy. Takedown Projectiles obliterates this challenge. I use the
Free Medal to cancel out What Goes Up so I don't have to wait around for an
enemy to go up a ladder. Start the challenge by going straight up to the
vantage point above Batman. Wait for an enemy to cross the bridge in front of
you and use the REC to knock him off for Perpetual Motion. Then go to the
vantage point on the opposite side of the room (above the back sniper), and
take out the sniper to your left with a quick tap of L1. You need to take him
out before you can take the sniper in the back. From there it's just a matter
of using quickfire batarangs to one-hit KO the rest of the enemies. Make sure
to use Detective Mode every so often to check for the Jammer's location and
take him out last. This whole process should take less than 2 minutes pretty
easily.
---
Ruthless Vengeance
(C)Survival of the Fittest (Extreme) <>
(P)Top of the World (Extreme) <>
(C)Blind Justice (Extreme) <>
This campaign includes what is hands-down, far and away, the hardest Predator
Challenge. Top of the World (Extreme) doesn't even have a close second, in my
opinion. It is a truly difficult, frustrating map. For that reason, even though
this is a Combat guide, I'm going to give you some pointers for getting through
it.
First off, we take Time Limit, Danger Zones, and One Hand Tied for our first
challenge. This means we have no counter indicators, guns are in play, and
there's a time limit. Use Disarm and Destroy to take the guns out in the first
round, then stick to a heavy regimen of Critical Strikes and Instant Takedown
to stay ahead of the clock. Fortunately Survival of the Fittest is one of the
easiest Extreme combat maps to get all 3 medals on, so these handicaps
shouldn't cause you too much grief. If they do, keep in mind you'll have
infinite retries here.
We slide Decreased Health and Gadget Malfunction off to Blind Justice. As far
as the handicap modifiers go, they're the least dangerous in combat. We want
out last challenge to be as easy as possible, because we want to absolutely
get the 3 Medals for Blind Justice here first time, every time. Failing and
Blind Justice and having to redo Top of the World would be extremely
frustrating.
Keep in mind that taking Gadget Malfunction means giving up the 8000 point
Gadget variation bonus for the challenge. If you've been relying on these
points to get your 3rd medal, you may wish to swap it out with either Danger
Zones or One Hand Tied from Survival of the Fittest, depending on whether you
use Counters or Redirects for defense. Danger Zones is still extremely easy to
deal with in Combat Challenges, and there's little harm in leaving it off for
Blind Justice. If you go this route, just make sure to let an enemy get the gun
in the first round, then build up a 5x combo and Disarm and Destroy it.
Alright, let's talk about Top of the World (Extreme). One of the Medals in
this challenge isn't a problem in the slightest. Fists of Fury is just using
Beat Down, and you are guaranteed to be able to do this on your last enemy. I
recommend saving one Disrupter charge for that opponent, just in case
something goes wrong. The Freeze Grenade does not work as well, because using
a Cape Stun on a frozen enemy knocks them straight to the ground and you
cannot use Beat Down. If you get to the last enemy and don't have a disrupter
charge, then just use a Freeze Grenade, and then fire the Batclaw until the
enemy drops his gun, and then use Beat Down.
That leaves 2 major challenges left for Top of the World. One is survival. The
enemies here are thorough, they do a lot of damage, the interior parts of the
room are laid out very poorly (if the vantage points are destroyed, you must
generally move around the room out in the open to get between hiding spots),
and there are 8 enemies to deal with. On top of all of this, there is an
Armored enemy with a Comm Jammer in play. This adds up to a fairly nasty
situation. The other challenge is the two remaining Medals. Let's focus on
them, first.
Of the two remaining medals, the hardest is Human Cannonball. Cold War isn't
particularly hard to achieve, but it's harder to achieve without getting
spotted. If you're spotted tagging the enemies from a vantage point for Cold
War, they'll destroy the vantage points, making the rest of the mission much
harder. So the goal here is going to be to knock both of these medals out at
once, in one quick move. Here's how.
The first thing you should do is switch your gadget selector to the Freeze
Cluster. We will be using it eventually. From the beginning of the mission
there will be a vantage point immediately above Batman. Move to it, and then
move two to three (I forget which) vantage points to your right until you see
an enemy on patrol. He will walk three steps toward you, and then three steps
back away from you, stopping for a moment each time. The first time you see him
walk away from you (this all must be done very quickly for proper timing, about
16 seconds in), tag him with a quickfire Freeze Grenade (double-tap R2), then
move to the vantage point to the other side of the balcony, right over his
head.
This goes a little different every time, pulling between 1 to 3 additional
enemies, but the important thing is that the Armored Jammer enemy should come
out and point his gun at the vantage point you fired the Freeze Grenade from
(but are no longer at). He will be in front of you, and right in front of him
will be the enemy you have frozen. Use a quickfire from the REC (L1+/\) to
knock him into that enemy. Now hit L1 to bring up the Freeze Cluster (which
you selected at the beginning of the mission), aim it, and fire it quickly at
these two enemies. If you're lucky, another enemy will have joined them and
will also be frozen. If you do not get three enemies, then wait a few seconds
for a third enemy to come out and join, and quickly fire another blast from
the Freeze Cluster.
At this point you should have the first two medals, but you still need to deal
with the Jammer enemy. To do this, quickly switch to Smoke Pellets (tap left
on the d-pad twice), and then hit L1, aim, R2 to drop a pellet into this group
of enemies. Drop down and join them. If any of them are still on the ground
attempt to do a Ground Takedown. Do as many of these as you can (will be
between 0 and 2), and then quickly turn your attention to the Jammer enemy if
he is still alive. You have little time for error here. You need to perform an
Ultra Stun on him to knock him to the ground, do a Ground Takedown, and then
grapple out of the area and around the building.
If performed right, this all happens very, very quickly. You will get the
first two medals, remove the Jammer, possibly remove two other foes, and--as
long as you didn't have to use two Freeze Clusters--the enemies will not know
to destroy the vantage points (they won't see you retreat because of the smoke,
but using the second Freeze Cluster always alerts them to where you were).
From this point it's just a matter of picking the rest of the enemies off. If
the intro didn't go perfectly, one of them will now move around the area and
start destroying vantage points. He immediately becomes your first priority.
Follow him to a balcony and Freeze Grenade him. If another enemy hears the
Freeze Grenade, retreat away. If not, use an Ice Smash Takedown to kill this
opponent, and then escape. If you kill the enemy who is aware that you're on
the vantage points, another enemy will not start destroying them unless they
also see you make a retreat on them.
Hopefully you will get to a point where you have no enemies destroying vantage
points, and at least two balconies still accessible by vantage points. Your
next best bet is to follow the remaining armored enemy. He's more difficult to
kill than the other enemies, but he's also laying mines, and will lay one out
on the balconies from time to time. You want to follow him until you see him
do this, and then use the Disrupter to detonate the mine as soon as he lays it
(make sure you're not accidentally targeting his gun) to kill him.
From here you can use Sonic Batarangs to lure enemies into Silent Takedowns.
Throw a Sonic Batarang to the far opposite side of a balcony from the vantage
point you're stationed on. It's important that you not lay the Sonic Batarang
in the middle of the platform, or the enemy will not turn their back to you.
When they're looking at the sonic, drop down to balcony, crouch-walk over to
them (Super Powered will make this faster), and do Silent Takedown and grapple
away. You can do this once per balcony you have access to. But, once you're
attempting to do it on a balcony where there is already a corpse, the enemies
get smarter and will shoot the batarang from a distance. You can still use
this to take them out, though. Alternately, you can simply toss the Sonic to
an enemy's feet and detonate it to get one more free takedown with it.
If you get into trouble you can head inside of the room. One of the balconies
leads directly to a grate you can hop into. From here you can have Batman come
out and do one Grate Takedown, wait for the enemies to leave (back through the
little hallway behind the grates so they don't see you), and then come back
out and follow the last enemy leaving for a Silent Takedown. This is hard (if
not impossible) when the Jammer is on, but Detective Mode should make it easy.
When you get to the last guy remember that you must use Beat Down to take him
out. As mentioned, I recommend saving your other Disrupter charge for this
purpose, just in case something goes wrong.
Ultimately, this challenge is all about the first 30 seconds or so. If you can
perform the first series exactly right, get the two medals, and take out at
least the Jammer enemy, the rest is just a matter of patience and not making
mistakes. You have 3 retries available, which means 4 possible attempts before
you have to repeat Survival of the Fittest (Extreme). With the approach I've
outlined here, 4 attempts should be a reasonable window for success.
---
Combat Expert
(C) Survival of the Fittest <>
(C) Funhouse Brawl <>
(C) Prison Riot <>
Normally I would take all of the penalties in the first round here, and rely
on the infinite retries to overcome it, but in this case that's not such a
good idea. Survival of the Fittest is one of the most jam-packed Combat
Challenges. Combine that with the health bonus from Increased Aggression, and
it becomes difficult (though not impossible) to come in under the time limit.
Still, if you want to knock all of the handicaps out right away, you can. Just
use the normal combination of Critical Strikex3, Instant Takedown. As long as
you are constantly killing enemies you will have time added on. If you want to
go even faster, you can just do two Critical Strikes, and then fire a quick
Batarang and immediatley perform Instant Takedown. The game will let you get
away with this surprisingly effectively.
Without Increased Aggression, though, your quickest way to get through
Survival of the Fittest under the Time Limit actually isn't Instant Takedowns,
but Freeflow Focus. Batman will nearly one-hit KO all of the enemies once he's
in Focus (two at the most), and you will absolutely shred your way through the
waves. Again, there's plenty of points to go around in this challenge, so
score shouldn't be much of an issue.
In Funhouse Brawl we take Increased Aggression, but since there's no Time
Limit, this isn't much of a problem. Just work your way through as you
normally would. Again, the extra health enemies have will work to your
advantage for points. If Increased Aggressive causes you much trouble, go ahead
and take Replenishing Health in this challenge and then just end on an
unmodified Prison Riot.
---
Predator Expert
(P) Meltdown Mayhem <>
(P) Lost City <>
(P) Top of the World <>
Meltdown Mayhem is a really easy map, so ideally I would prefer to knock all
of the handicaps out on it. Unfortunately, you cannot complete the Smoke
Detector achievement with One Hand Tied, so it has to wait. Just stay on the
vantage points and take the enemies down one at a time. There's only 5, and
the Medals are easy.
You have to take One Hand Tied for Lost City, because Top of the World will
also require a Silent Takedown from within smoke. The hardest part of Lost
City is performing the Fall Guy medal. It's best to do this by luring a guy
onto the set of stairs immediately in front of where you start (using a Sonic
Batarang), and then using the Batclaw from the lower set to it's left. From
here, move to the first fire extinguisher, Batarang it, and then move to the
wooden wall/grate area to the right side of the room. After getting the wall
and grate takedown, just Freeze Grenade/Ground Takedown every enemy who comes
to you.
Saving Takedown Projectiles for Top of the World makes the challenge as easy
at it's going to get. Either use it to thin things out early on, or get your
three medals first, then use it for easy clean up. The hardest one is probably
Fire Hazard. Just use a Sonic Batarang to get a guy near a Fire Extinguisher,
batarang it, then Silent Takedown him.
READER WRITE-IN:
Lance Mulhern wrote in with this to say about Meltdown Mayhem:
"During the first 10 seconds or so of the map, one of the henchmen will head
over to the grates on the left side (relative to where you start). As soon as
he's standing above the grates, throw the smoke bomb and jump towards a grate
that he's not standing on. Get under it and walk over to him, then do a
grate takedown and it counts for the purposes of Smoke Detector. The timing is
a little tricky, but it's fairly straightforward once you've practiced a couple
of times. This makes predator expert cake, as you get all your disadvantages
out of the way right away."
So, thanks to Lance's discover, it is possible to get all of the negative
modifiers out of the way in Meltdown Mayhem. Just use his tactic, and take
<>. Take no modifiers in
Lost City, and still save <> for Top of the World to make
it an easy victory.
---
Combat Master
(C) Blind Justice (Extreme) <>
(C) Rooftop Rumble (Extreme) <>
(C) Hell's Gate (Extreme) <>
The standard rule of "get the worst out of the way" applies here. Blind
Justice is up first, and is the easiest of the Extreme Combat Challenges, so
it's a good candidate for this. The hard part is picking what the "worst" is.
Protective Aura is an obvious one, but the remaining four handicaps are all
kind of a wash. Take whatever you like, as long as it's all minuses for Blind
Justice. I recommend saving Gadget Malfunction for later, so you can farm the
Gadget bonuses in Blind Justice which, as always, is light on enemies.
Protective Aura can actually make Blind Justice really hard to hold combo in,
so you're going to want to use Method 1 here, and go with Variations for your
points. Just an 8 variation score and a 5 Gadget variation in every round
should get you where you need to be for the third medal. I managed to pull
31,275 (11 variation bonus, 45-hit combo ending in 2 Ground Pounds) in Round 4
alone, so there's definitely breathing room here.
Knock the rest of your handicaps out in Rooftop Rumble. With Decreased
Health and Gadget Malfunction, the 3rd Medal is still a breeze. The Lieutenant
in Round 4 is worth gobs of points.
Hell's Gate is loaded with special defense enemies, and is a perfect choice for
Super Powered. Just drop Disarm and Destroy out of your rotation.
---
Predator Master
(P) Police Brutality (Extreme) <>
(P) Natural Selection (Extreme) <>
(P) End of the Line (Extreme) <>
This was the hardest campaign for me to complete. But I'm a Combat guy, after
all. Still, I didn't find this as hard as the first time I beat Top of the
World (Extreme), so it could be fair to say Ruthless Vengeance is just as hard,
if not harder.
It pains me to blow Free Medal in the first challenge, but no matter which of
these challenges you use Danger Zones in, it's going to create real problems.
End of the Line is the only challenge that doesn't require use of a vantage
point for one of the medals. Natural Selection requires two, in fact
(technically Deep Impact is possible without it, but not within reason).
So the options here are to either take Danger Zones and Free Medal together in
Police Brutality, or save Danger Zones for End of the Line and try to take
over the sniper's nest in the back of the room. The Police Brutality route is
probably harder, but you also have free retries for the first challenge,
making it the logical choice. The lack of vantage points makes it so that
victory must come quickly at any rate, so Time Limit isn't much of a factor
here, and it's good to get out of the way.
This leaves a requirement that you do all of the medals in Natural Selection,
including Boom Box--which I despise--with Increased Aggression and Protective
Aura. This shouldn't be too much of an issue. Remember to save your Sonic
Batarang and one Disrupter charge for Boom Box, and use a proximity Explosive
Gel to trap the gun rack. Using the Batclaw from the stairway early on to pull
the sniper on the bridge down helps quite a bit, but is a dangerous gamble.
You may need to use a Fire Extinguisher to get away, so be prepared with a
batarang.
Save Scattered Weapons for End of the Line. It's not a handicap there, as you
should never be leaving the vantage points (other than taking out the back
sniper from his own nest with the REC). In fact, one of the mines is at the
top of a ladder, and handy for What Goes Up.
---[PM1] - Predator Medals---
This is a list of the Medals for Predator Mode. This is just an index that I
have attached for use with the Campaign Mode material in CM1
I've also rated these according to difficulty, on a scale of 1 to 3 stars. A 1
star is a medal that I consider so easy that I'm likely to do it in a stealth
section anyway, and should cause no real problems. A 2 star is something
that's a bit out of the way; this either means it's something easy that the
challenge makes harder because of layout, or it's something hard that the
challenge makes easy by setting it up for you. A 3 star is something I consider
a major obstacle; in Campaign Mode I will be recommending using the Free Medal
modifier for these, when possible.
Meltdown
(* ) Smoke detector - Smoke Pellet and then Take Down enemy
(* ) Mind your head - Hit an enemy with a Batarang to the head and then use a
Ground Takdown on them (must be regular Batarang, not Remote Control)
(** ) Shock Tactics - Use the REC to make an enemy fire into the air, scaring
another enemy
Police Bruality
(** ) Blast Zone - Use Explosive Gel to knock a Weak Wall into an enemy
(* ) Knockout Smash - Use Knockout Smash
(* ) Window Pain - Use a Takedown through a Window
Natural Selection
(* ) Weapon Jam - Disable an enemy's gun with the Disrupter, make them
attempt to use it against you, and then take them out
(* ) Aerial Assault - Use a Glide Kick, followed by a Ground Takedown
(** ) Friends Fly Free - Double Ledge TKO (this should be done at the very
beginning of the mission, as there is a perfect setup for it right above
where Batman starts)
End of the Line
(** ) Kick off - Line Launch an enemy over a ledge
(***) Scare Tactics - Appear "from nowhere" in front of a terrified enemy
(* ) Freeze Frame - Use an Ice Smash Takedown
Lost City
(* ) Grate Moves - Use a Takedown from within a grate
(** ) Fall guy - Use the Batclaw to pull an enemy over a walkway
(* ) Breaking and Entering - Use a Takedown through a weak wooden wall
Top of the World
(** ) Fire Hazard - Break a Fire Extinguisher and then use a Takedown on the
enemy in the smoke
(* ) Confiscated weapon - Use the Batclaw Disarm on an enemy
(* ) Mined Your Step - Detonate a mine with the disrupter, taking out a foe
Meltdown Mayhem (Extreme)
(** ) Armor Piercing - Take out the Armored enemy first (to do this easily,
detonate the Fire Extinguisher near the Sniper, freeze the Sniper, then
Inverted Takedown the armored enemy)
(** ) Bringing Down the Roof - Explode a ceiling down onto an enemy (only hard
because this challenge has only one weak ceiling)
(** ) Venting anger - Use a Takedown through a Vent Cover
Police Brutality (Extreme)
(** ) Don't Touch that Dial - Save the Jammer enemy for last (not hard per
se, but inconvenient). You can mitigate this by using the REC followed by a
Freeze Grenade on him often to keep the Jammer offline.
(** ) Feet First - Reverse Ledge Takedown (must be done on enemy DIRECTLY
below Batman. Hard to set up, should be done at beginning on enemy walking
through door on left side of starting area)
(** ) Smash and Grab - Inverted Takedown through weak ceiling. This can be
done at the beginning of the fight on the vantage point immediately to
Batman's right. Should immediately be followed by Feet First, if so (will
call the enemy to come through the door there)
Natural Selection (Extreme)
(***) Boom Box - Use Explosive Gel on an enemy getting a weapon from a gun box
(* ) Chaos Theory - Use an Inverted Takedown on a Thermal enemy (easy with
Thermal Cancel upgrade and Sonic Batarangs)
(** ) Deep Impact - Hit at least 2 foes with Shockwave
End of the Line (Extreme)
(* ) Perpetual Motion - REC an enemy off of a ledge (this can be done to
nearly every enemy on this challenge for an easy victory)
(** ) What goes up - Knock down an enemy who just climbed a ladder. Use the
REC for this as well.
(** ) Don't Touch That Dial - Save the Jammer enemy for last. In this
challenge it's even easier to use REC/Freeze Grenade on him, because he
will often isolate himself and be stuck frozen for a long time. You also
have more visibility in End of the Line, so it's less of a nuisance.
Lost City (Extreme)
(***) Bullet Proof - Don't get shot
(** ) Switch Hitter - Use the Line Launcher to take out one foe, turn, and
then take out another foe. This should be done first thing, to the right of
where Batman starts. It's best to use a Freeze Grenade to freeze the second
foe you will hit first (or he will spot you and shoot you, costing you
Bullet Proof)
(** ) Highspeed Impact - Use a fully boosted Remote Control Batarang to knock
an enemy off a ledge. It's best to do this back in the room where Batman
starts, because if the enemies realize you're on the vantage points they'll
start destroying them.
Top of the World (Extreme)
(* ) Fist of Fury - Use Beat Down to take out a foe (save for last enemy)
(***) Human Cannonball - Use the REC to knock an Armored Thug into another
thug (hard because there are only two armored thugs, and requires perfect
line with Batman and 2 enemies)
(** ) Cold War - Use the Freeze Cluster to freeze at least 3 foes
[XC]. Section C: Achievements/Trophies
There are far less combat achievements than there were in the first game. I
think this is mainly because there are extra combat challenges added by the
in-game Ridder content. Most of those, however, are extremely easy, and amount
to simple things like "use Slide 3 times". Keep in mind, however, that for the
Riddler challenges that require a Combo Gadget, Batman must be in Freeflow
(2-hit combo) or the gadget does not yet count as being a Combo Gadget.
50x Combo - This is most easily performed on Round 4 of Survival of the
Fittest. Simply make sure to remove all of the weapons in the previous rounds
with Disarm and Destroy, and then use a constant pattern of Redirect, Critical
Strike for an easy achievement. There are 20 foes here, so you should have
plenty of leeway.
Flawless Freeflow Fighter 2.0 - Complete an entire combat challenge without
getting hit. This is most easily accomplished on Blind Justice. I find that
typically using Redirect/Critical Strike chains results in this anyway, but if
you're having trouble use a combination of Freeze Cluster (use immediately,
it's too dangerous mid-combat) and Freeze Grenade to thin the field in the
rounds.
Gadget Attack - Use all five Quickfire Gadgets in one fight. This is Combo
Batarang, Batclaw, Explosive Gel, REC, and Freeze Grenade. Note that these do
not have to be part of the same combo, making this extremely easy.
Perfect Freeflow 2.0 - Perform a perfect 12 variation combo. Use Combat Method
1 from section PT1 to achieve this.
---[END1] - SPECIAL THANKS---
Thanks to Onionknight for taking down notes for the guide, proof-reading, and
gathering multipliers and reward numbers for the various combat events.
---CONTACT INFO---
If you have any suggestions, or if I missed a detail somewhere, feel free to
contact me at abaddononion at hotmail dot com.
---INEVITABLE DISCLAIMER---
You may not copy, reproduce, or link to this FAQ without permission. If
you want to use this FAQ on your website or publication, please e-mail
me at abaddononion at hotmail dot com. I have no problems with anyone
who asks. November 2011.